Car Tyres

A car tyre was invented and patented by a man named R W Thomson in 1845. His initial design used an amount of thin air filled tubes which were placed inside a leather cover. There were a number of advantages to this design compared to later designs. These were that they were able to obtain more than one puncture before deflating the whole tyre, and the pressures could be varied in order to alter the ride conditions.

In the late nineteenth century (1888), a man called John Boyd Dunlop created the Rubber Pneumatic Tyre. In spite of these technological breakthroughs this solid rubber tyre sustained to be the leading tyre. It was not until the year 1889 when the pneumatic tyre became popular. A group of businessmen from Dublin, Ireland realised the prospective of this tyre, and, in 1889, along with Mr. Dunlop, they created an organisation which was to become known as "THE DUNLOP PNEUMATIC TYRE COMPANY." In 1893, this Dublin Company opened an Office and Factory in Australia.

In 1899, a Canadian company took over the company and in 1905; they made the first of their many purchases with the acquisition of their main competitor, “the Barnet Glass Rubber Company”.

In 1845 Robert Thomson patented aerial wheels. There were no bicycles or combustion engines then so he created a number of experiments and then decided to fit his tyres onto a carriage. In Regent's Park, London, he had his carriage next to an ordinary carriage and was able to show that it was a lot easier to pull the carriage that had the pneumatic tyres. The pneumatic tyres were a great success although there was no market for them at the time because rubber was very costly in the 1840s.

Unfortunately the initial tyre had its problems. The inner tube was hard to obtain because the tyre was actually stuck to the wheel. In the year 1890 CK Welsh patented a design of the wheel rim and the outer cover with the inextensible lip. These were the basics of the tyres of today. Over the years a tyre has developed into the high technology offerings of today. Michelin’s invention in 1948 of the radial tyre with its infinitely superior grip and when in 1972 Dunlop abolished the inner tube in car tyres were just two of the leading technical developments.

Over time the motor industry has given tyres the capability of a number of different applications ranging from High Speed Racing like Formula One to their heavy Plant Usage on a vehicle as big as a house. All types of tyres create a comfortable ride, comparative puncture resistance, wear and performance. The significance of a tyre should not be taken for granted as the tyre is the vehicles sole contact with the road.

Most people will use air to fill their tyres, although there are a number of people who choose to use Nitrogen. The benefits of using Nitrogen filling are that it improves the comfort of the ride, it improves safety, it helps to save more money on fuel and it helps to improve the life of the tyre.

Nitrogen has been accepted as the gas medium for filling the tyres on aircrafts, racing cars and the heavy mining & construction vehicles for a long time. It is used for safety reasons in order to make sure that the tyres are permanently at a constant pressure.

The rubber tyre is similar to a membrane, of which oxygen permeates three times quicker than nitrogen. This results in oxygen slowly leaking out through the tyres rubber walls. The under-inflation will also lead to greater tyre wear with a subsequent reduction in the safety and comfort, and of course higher fuel costs.

Although cars are created to give hassle free motoring over the longer distances, you are advised to check the tyre pressure every week. Tyres will expand when they heat up, which will happen when you are driving, therefore the best time for a motorist to check their tyre pressure would be before they start their journey. If the tyre pressure is checked during a journey, and the reading is higher than the normal suggested tyre pressure, they should not decrease the pressure. It safer to drive with an over-inflated tyre than it would be to drive with an under inflated tyre. Although, the best solution is to check them regularly in order to establish the right pressure at all times.