DUNLOP, JOHN BOYD (184o-1921), Scottish inventor, the pioneer of the pneumatic rubber tyre, was born on Feb. 5, 1840, on a farm at Dreghorn, Ayrshire. He settled in 1867 as a veterinary surgeon in Belfast, where he had a large and success ful practice. In 1887 he constructed a pneumatic tyre for his little boy's tricycle. The invention was tested, and patented on Dec. 7, 1888. Two years later production on a commercial scale began, in conjunction with William Harvey Du Cros, by the Pneumatic Tyre and Booth Cycle Agency, Belfast. Dunlop made over the patent to Du Cros for a moderate sum, and took 1,500 shares in the company. Some difficulty arose when it was discov ered that the principle of the pneumatic tyre had been patented in 1846 by an inventor named Thompson, but the company held various accessory patents which enabled them to establish their position. Dunlop himself did not make a great fortune by the invention, as he took no further part in the great developments which followed the sale of the company in 1896 to E. T. Hooley, who refloated it for f 5,000,000. Dunlop died in Dublin, where he had an interest in a drapery firm, on Oct. 23, 1921.
See Jean McClintock (his daughter), History of the Pneumatic Tyre (1923) .