Researched
Safety Bicycle & Pneumatic Tyre
The chain-driven safety bicycle (1885) and Dunlop's air-filled tyre (1888) bring fast, cheap personal transport to millions.
Open in the interactive tree →John Kemp Starley's Rover (1885), with two equal wheels and a chain drive, was the first practical bicycle for everyone, and John Boyd Dunlop's inflatable tyre (1888) made it comfortable. The bicycle boom of the 1890s drove the development of ball bearings, tubular steel frames, tensioned wire wheels and pressed-metal mass production. The Wright brothers were bicycle mechanics, and early cars borrowed the same wheels, chains and tyres.
Prerequisites
- Wheel~3500 BC
- Interchangeable Parts~1800–1850
- Vulcanized Rubber1839Dunlop's pneumatic tyre needs vulcanised rubber
Unlocks
- Automobile1886Chain drive, ball bearings, steel tubing and wire wheels came from the bicycle industry
- Airplane1903The Wrights were bicycle builders: light frames, chains and bearings
Sources
More in Transport & Mobility · Industrial Age
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