John Boyd Dunlop

John Boyd Dunlop
Born(1840-02-05)5 February 1840
Died23 October 1921(1921-10-23) (aged 81)
Resting placeDean’s Grange Cemetery
NationalityScottish
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh
Known forDevelopment of the pneumatic tyre
Co-founder of the original Dunlop Rubber

John Boyd Dunlop (5 February 1840 – 23 October 1921) was a Scottish 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 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 and, despite its name, was Du Cros's creation.