The tyres were originally made from steel. A Scottish master of science R. W. Thompson made in London in 1845 the first rubber (full) tyres. They were not as noisy as the metal ones, but otherwise they did not differ from them with their qualities very much.. Actually it was only a firm rubber cover.

In the same year William Thompson had a tyre patented. Its hollow was filled with a compressed air. But this patent wasn’t brought into the production, because the wheels were too scarce at that time.

Similar tyres had lord Lorain made up to the wheels of his coach in 1847, but their production was so expensive that nobody didn’t go into it.

A Scottish vet John Boyd Dunlop (1840 – 1921), who worked in Belfast in the Northern Ireland got always angry when he found deep grooves on the lawn, which remained here after his son’s tricycle. To protect his garden he took a piece of a hose, filled it with water, caulked both ends firmly and fixed it to the wheel of the tricycle. Sir John Fagan, who saw that, offered him to try to fill the hose with the air. And so Dunlop made a circle from a double rubber and pumped it with a ball-pump. When he mounted the first couple of the tyres to the wheels of the tricycle, he was nicely surprised with the effect. He bought a bicycle and tested his invention on it. He had his construction patented in 1888, but he didn’t become rich from his invention. Except the above mentioned fact, that at that time there were not so many bicycles, the Dunlop’s tyre was impractical: it was connected with the felly with a thick layer of glue.

Edouard Michelin (taken over from http://www.michelin.co.uk/uk/eng/groupe/p1131.htm)

A change happens when one of the few cyclists visits the factory Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand in France and asks for the reparation of a tyre. At that time the factory produced brake-blocks and it was lead by Edouard Michelin and the assistant was his older brother André. Edouard realised, that the tyre – if it was easier to use – could become the future product of the factory. And so in 1891 he had patented a detachable tyre. When Charles Thery wins a cycling competition Paris – Brest – Paris with a new Michelin tyre, it immediately endeared in the public. A year later it is used by 10.000 of cyclists!

In 1895 a car ”was born”. But the construction of its wheels did not allow a higher speed than 25 km/hour. And so Michelin is inventing again: he designed a built a car and fitted the wheels with tyres. The car won a competition Paris – Bordeaux – Paris: the car and the tyre were connected firmly. In 1898 the famous figurine Michelin appear for the first time, it is a symbol of the firm well known all over the world. In 1899 a myth boundary of 100 km/hour was broken through.

In 1913 he had patented a steel detachable wheel, which lead to the creation of the fifth reserve wheel.

In 1917 the fist tyres with a runner appeared, it gave the tyre a better adhesion and longer life cycle. The life cycle of a tyre is further prolonged with introduction (1919) of so called cord-tyre. Here are used the parallel layers of firm thick fibres from a long-fibre cotton instead of several layers of normally weaved cloth.

In the following year the pressure in the tyres was constantly sinking up to 150 kPa and the life cycle gets to the boundary of 30 00 km. In 1938 the ”steel” tyres appear, this was the crucial step to so called radial tyres. These weren’t patented until the end of the war on  4^th June 1946 and have been sold since the year 1949. Later on even the radial tyres for the tracks, tractors and planes were produced.

Construction of a conventional and a radial tyre (taken over from http://www.michelin.co.uk/uk/eng/groupe/p1138.htm)