Story :
Today we are surrounded by so many highly developed products, such as the electric light, the radio, the telephone and the automobile, that we are apt to forget how we came by them. They are so interwoven into our daily lives that we overlook their importance until something threatens to deprive us of their use.
Take th
e automobile, for instance. Until now, very few of us really appreciated how much the operation of cars, buses and trucks depended upon gasoline and rubber tires. While our thirty million pneumatic-tired vehicles today have the capacity to move every man, woman and child in the United States at the same time, yet there was not even a pneumatic bicycle tire on the market sixty years ago.
But, thanks to Charles Goodyear, bicycles did have solid rubber tires. In Belfast, Ireland, in 1884, some of the streets were paved with what we call Belgian block, not exactly a smooth road for solid-tired bicycles. Every day, a small boy rode his hard-tired tricycle over these blocks to school and complained to his father about the roughness. His father, Doctor John Dunlop, a veterinarian, decided to do something about it. He made a wooden disc wheel, and around the edge of it fastened an inflated rubber tube held in place with linen cloth tacked to the wheel.
To compare the relative speeds of these two tires, the air disc one and the old solid tire, Dunlop rolled them across his yard. The new air tire went the whole length of the yard and bounced off the wall at the end. The solid tire did not go nearly as far.
And so from that time on, his son Johnny would have nothing but the new air tires on his tricycle "because he could beat the bigger boys." But Dunlop then did not have the slightest conception of the automobile. He didn't rate the pneumatic tire as a scientific invention, but only as something to please a small boy.
In England at that time, bicycle racing had become one of the most popular sports. Everyone was interested in anything that would increase the rider's speed. As an experiment, Dunlop equipped one of the new "Safety" bicycles with his pneumatic tires, and William Hume, who was not one of the best riders, defeated all the solid-tired competitors in his first race. Among the defeated riders was Harvey DuCros. Arthur DuCros, learning of his brother's defeat, investigated the new tires and had them put on their new "Safety" bicycles. The following year, he and Harvey won all of the English and French races on their Dunlop tires.
But people were not exactly convinced, so when news about these revolutionary tires began to travel, the "Irish Cyclist," a trade journal, made these sarcastic comments: "Pneumatic? Something to do with ai
r, isn't it? Quite right, too, we like to see new ideas well ventilated." But Dunlop did not let such criticism or the more practical difficulties discourage him. In 1890, through the help of the DuCros, the Pneumatic Tyre Company was formed and the new tires soon became standard on nearly all English and American bicycles.
But a new type of vehicle was coming into the picture - the automobile. And, like the bicycle, these early horseless carriages were usually bought by sportsmen. This was particularly true in France. Michelin, the French rubber manufacturer, learning how successful the pneumatic tire was in increasing the speed of bicycles, tried for several years to interest the automobile manufacturers in France in this new type of tire for their faster cars. At last, he convinced some of the French makers, and in 1895, the pneumatic tire came into regular use on automobiles.
The story of Dunlop's development is no different from the experiences of many other inventors. It simply is impossible to determine the ultimate value of any invention at the time it is made.
It would be just as difficult for parents to predict the exact future of their newborn child. Dunlop could not foresee that an entirely new industry would come from his invention, to say nothing of his being able to establish it as one of the most important factors in a World War fifty years later.
There are always thousands of young ideas growing up around us. Like children, they must be carefully developed. I am so positive of this that I have often said we must obtain a better understanding of the way to develop ideas. Because if we tried to rear human children the way we develop infant ideas, we would expect a child of nine months to earn its own living.
Take the automobile, for instance. Until now, very few of us really appreciated how much the operation of cars, buses and trucks depended upon gasoline and rubber tires. While our thirty million pneumatic-tired vehicles today have the capacity to move every man, woman and child in the United States at the same time, yet there was not even a pneumatic bicycle tire on the market sixty years ago.
But, thanks to Charles Goodyear, bicycles did have solid rubber tires. In Belfast, Ireland, in 1884, some of the streets were paved with what we call Belgian block, not exactly a smooth road for solid-tired bicycles. Every day, a small boy rode his hard-tired tricycle over these blocks to school and complained to his father about the roughness. His father, Doctor John Dunlop, a veterinarian, decided to do something about it. He made a wooden disc wheel, and around the edge of it fastened an inflated rubber tube held in place with linen cloth tacked to the wheel.
To compare the relative speeds of these two tires, the air disc one and the old solid tire, Dunlop rolled them across his yard. The new air tire went the whole length of the yard and bounced off the wall at the end. The solid tire did not go nearly as far.
And so from that time on, his son Johnny would have nothing but the new air tires on his tricycle "because he could beat the bigger boys." But Dunlop then did not have the slightest conception of the automobile. He didn't rate the pneumatic tire as a scientific invention, but only as something to please a small boy.
In England at that time, bicycle racing had become one of the most popular sports. Everyone was interested in anything that would increase the rider's speed. As an experiment, Dunlop equipped one of the new "Safety" bicycles with his pneumatic tires, and William Hume, who was not one of the best riders, defeated all the solid-tired competitors in his first race. Among the defeated riders was Harvey DuCros. Arthur DuCros, learning of his brother's defeat, investigated the new tires and had them put on their new "Safety" bicycles. The following year, he and Harvey won all of the English and French races on their Dunlop tires.
But people were not exactly convinced, so when news about these revolutionary tires began to travel, the "Irish Cyclist," a trade journal, made these sarcastic comments: "Pneumatic? Something to do with air, isn't it? Quite right, too, we like to see new ideas well ventilated." But Dunlop did not let such criticism or the more practical difficulties discourage him. In 1890, through the help of the DuCros, the Pneumatic Tyre Company was formed and the new tires soon became standard on nearly all English and American bicycles.
But a new type of vehicle was coming into the picture - the automobile. And, like the bicycle, these early horseless carriages were usually bought by sportsmen. This was particularly true in France. Michelin, the French rubber manufacturer, learning how successful the pneumatic tire was in increasing the speed of bicycles, tried for several years to interest the automobile manufacturers in France in this new type of tire for their faster cars. At last, he convinced some of the French makers, and in 1895, the pneumatic tire came into regular use on automobiles.
The story of Dunlop's development is no different from the experiences of many other inventors. It simply is impossible to determine the ultimate value of any invention at the time it is made.
It would be just as difficult for parents to predict the exact future of their newborn child. Dunlop could not foresee that an entirely new industry would come from his invention, to say nothing of his being able to establish it as one of the most important factors in a World War fifty years later.
There are always thousands of young ideas growing up around us. Like children, they must be carefully developed. I am so positive of this that I have often said we must obtain a better understanding of the way to develop ideas. Because if we tried to rear human children the way we develop infant ideas, we would expect a child of nine months to earn its own living.
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