On the following
year a carriage equipped with them was seen in the streets of New York
City. But the pneumatic tire did not come into use until after 1888,
when an Irish horse-doctor, John Boyd Dunlop, of Belfast, tied a rubber
tube around the wheels of his little son's velocipede. Within seven
years after that a $25,000,000 corporation was manufacturing Dunlop
tires. Later America took the lead in this business. In 1913 the United
States exported $3,000,000 worth of tires and tubes. In 1917 the
American exports rose to $13,000,000, not counting what went to the
Allies. The number of pneumatic tires sold in 1917 is estimated at
18,000,000, which at an average cost of $25 would amount to
$450,000,000.
No matter how much synthetic rubber may be manufactured or how many
rubber trees are set out there is no danger of glutting the market, for
as the price falls the uses of rubber become more numerous. One can
think of a thousand ways in which rubber could be used if it were only
cheap enough. In the form of pads and springs and tires it would do much
to render traffic noiseless.
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