John Boyd Dunlop, Scottish businessman, co-founded Dunlop Rubber (d. 1921)
John Boyd Dunlop (5 February 1840 – 23 October 1921) was a Scottish-born inventor and veterinary surgeon who spent most of his career in Ireland. Familiar with making rubber devices, he invented the first practical pneumatic tyres for his child's tricycle and developed them for use in cycle racing. He sold his rights to the pneumatic tyres to a company he formed with the president of the Irish Cyclists' Association, Harvey Du Cros, for a small cash sum and a small shareholding in their pneumatic tyre business. Dunlop withdrew in 1896. The company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, was not incorporated until later using the name well known to the public, but it was Du Cros's creation.
1840Feb, 5
John Boyd Dunlop
Choose Another Date
Events on 1840
- 10Feb
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. - 11Feb
La fille du régiment
Gaetano Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France. - 22May
New South Wales
The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished. - 23Jul
Act of Union 1840
The Province of Canada is created by the Act of Union. - 11Oct
Bashir Shihab II
The Maronite leader Bashir Shihab II surrenders to the Ottoman Empire and later is sent to Malta in exile.