WWWest-Online Development Blog

When I check the timeline I look at every year to see that everything is written correctly. While doing this, I noticed that 1846 saw the patenting of the pneumatic tire, and I thought it would be interesting to check a little about it.

A short trip back to the roots: Before the tire there was the wheel. The invention of the wheel is one of man’s greatest achievements, and is attributed to ancient Mesopotamia, in the 5th Millennium BC.

The first man to invent the pneumatic tire (that’s right, it was so awesome that it had to be invented twice) was Robert William Thomson from Scotland, who patented the pneumatic tire in 1846. The first tire was made from leather around a rubber pipe filled with air. Thomson referred his invention as the “aerial wheel”. That invention eventually transformed road travel from uncomfortable bumps and jolts into a quiet, smooth ride. This invention was 50 years ahead of its time; in 1846 there were no cars and bicycles were only starting to appear.

In 1888 John Boyd Dunlop from Belfast, Ireland became the second inventor of the pneumatic tire. Dunlop claimed that he didn’t know about Thomson’s invention. This time the pneumatic tire caught the public’s attention, since bicycles were becoming popular.

One of the things that helped to develop tires is the ongoing development of rubber. In the early days of rubber it wasn’t very useful, due to the fact that early rubber didn’t hold its shape very well; it would be sticky in hot weather and became inflexible in colder temperatures. The man who made rubber more fitting for use is Charles Goodyear, who discovered the vulcanization process. Vulcanization is the process of heating rubber with sulfur. This transforms the sticky raw rubber into a firm, pliable material, which makes rubber the perfect choice for tires.

In 1888 two brothers, Andre & Edouard Michelin, opened a rubber factory in Clermont Ferrand France. In 1891 a bicycle rider came to their factory to buy the materials he needed to repair his Dunlop tires. It took 3 hours of work and overnight drying to repair the tire and glue it to the rim. Following this incident the Michelin brothers developed an interest in tires. Their vision was to make a tire that could be repaired in 15 minutes. As we all know, their vision became reality.

Over the years the tires has developed more and more (and it still is). Today’s tires, for example, can handle much higher speeds than the older ones, and can travel much longer distances before wearing out.

So though the pneumatic tire didn’t quite catch on in the real wild west, Wwwest-Online is, after all, a game. So who knows, maybe one of our inventive players will be able to bring the joy of inflated rubber tubes to our version of the west .

Stego