DUNLOP RUBBER COMPANY, LTD. In 1888 bi cycles were used almost solely for racing, and the tyres were made of solid rubber. In that year J. B. Dunlop, a veterinary sur geon of Belfast, patented a pneumatic tyre, which was really a re-invention—the first pneumatic tyre having been patented by Thompson in 1846. A company was formed to exploit Dunlop's invention and the first pneumatic tyre company (which also controlled a cycle business) was established with an issued capital of f 15,o1 o. The company was known as the Pneumatic Tyre and Booth's Cycle Agency Ltd. The first pneumatics were received with derision ; but they quickly established their superi ority, and in 1896 the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. Ltd. was formed with an issued capital of 15,000,000. Up to 1899 this company did not possess any rubber mills, but in that year it acquired the shares of a rubber manufacturing concern in Birmingham. The present Dunlop Rubber Co. Ltd., in 1912 acquired the whole of the trading rights of the Tyre Co.
The company's mills at Fort Dunlop, Birmingham, stand on some 400 acres. Through subsidiary companies the Dunlop com pany owns the largest cotton mills in the world—at Rochdale and rubber plantations in the Malay with a planted area of over 6o,000 acres. Through its ownership of Charles Macintosh Ltd., and its subsidiaries, the Dunlop Co. now deals in all classes of rubber goods. The Dunlop organization has mills in America, France and Germany, and large interests in associated companies in Australia, Canada and Japan. The share and loan capital held by the public in the Dunlop Co. and its English subsidiaries is now nearly £24,000,000 and its employees throughout the World number approximately 50,000. (A. T. F.)