06 January 2017

I Love Tires, Too!

Last week, I mentioned John Boyd Dunlop, the inventor of the pneumatic tire.  It is, without a doubt, the single most important innovation in the history of cycling--and one of the most important in the history of technology.  

Supposedly, he invented it to appease his son, who complained about the harsh ride of the tricycle he'd just received for his birthday.  


If that story is true, let's hope the son's reaction is something like this:


3 comments:

  1. You would have thought that it would have been easier to invent a sprung suspension system... No punctures...

    I guess we should remember Dunlop for inventing punctures too!

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  2. Coline--Funny you should mention that. The great inventions of history also engender the most nagging problems.

    I am reminded of how I feel about Walt Whitman's poetry: I love it, but it's also responsible (at least in part) for the worst tendencies in poetry since WWII or thereabouts.

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