John Boyd Dunlop
John Boyd Dunlop (
February 5,
1840 –
October 23,
1921) was a
Scottish inventor who founded the rubber company that bears his name,
Dunlop Tyres.
He was born on a farm at
Dreghorn,
North Ayrshire, and studied to be a
veterinary surgeon at the
Dick Vet,
University of Edinburgh, a profession he pursued for nearly ten years at home, moving to
Belfast,
Ireland, in 1867.
In
1887, he developed the first practical
pneumatics tyre for a boy's tricycle, tested it, and
patented it on
December 7 1888. Dunlop's invention arrived at a crucial time in the development of
road transport. Commercial production began in late 1890 in Belfast. Dunlop assigned his patent to
William Harvey Du Cros, in return for 1500
shares in the resultant company, and in the end did not make any great fortune by his invention. Dunlop died in
Dublin.
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Famous Scots - John Boyd Dunlop*
About Dunlop Tyre Company
