06/19/2026
🛞 Fun Fact Friday 🛞
The first air-filled tire was patented by Robert William Thomson in 1845. He called it the “Aerial Wheel,” but it was expensive to produce and the rough roads of the time made it impractical, so it never caught on.
43 years later, in 1888, John Boyd Dunlop reinvented the pneumatic tire to give his son’s tricycle a smoother ride. He officially patented his design on December 7, 1888 in Belfast, Ireland and it quickly gained popularity.🇮🇪 He later secured a U.S. patent in 1890, the same year his tire officially went into commercial production. 🇺🇸
⭐️ Today’s modern tires can trace their roots back to a kid’s tricycle. Pretty cool, right!? 🚲
