Famous inventors: John Boyd Dunlop

John Boyd Dunlop should be a familiar name to you - at least the surname Dunlop, should.

Mr. Dunlop (February 5, 1840 - October 23, 1921) was a veterinarian by training, having graduated from the University of Edinburgh. Now, although born in Scotland, he spent most of his life in Ireland, in Belfast (in what was then not "Northern Ireland", but is now). So, although Scottish by birth, you could call him a naturalized Irishman.

John Boyd Dunlop had a veterinarian practice but this is not what he became famous for. Like many a father, he paid attention to his son's doings. He couldn't help but notice that, everytime his son rode his tricycle, he seemed to be in some great discomfort. This was not surprising, since, in those days, tires (tyres Br.) were solid rubber. Every bump in the road was felt deeply. Something had to be done.

Dunlop was a man of some imagination and inventiveness. So, he took his son's tricycle and set about the task of improving the situation. He wrapped thin rubber sheets around the wheels and then glued them together. Then he pumped them up with a footpump. The world's first commercially practicable pneumatic tyre had been invented. It was 1887. In 1888, he received a patent for this invention. Sadly, however, two years later he was informed that there was some overlap with the invention of one Robert William Thomson - a Scottish inventor, curiously - who had patented a similar idea in 1846 in France and 1847 in the US. Nevertheless, Dunlop didn't let go of his idea. He sold his patent to a William Harvey Du Cros was intent on commercializing it, in exchange for 1,500 shares in the resultant company, Dunlop Tyres. (American's might insist on Dunlop Tires, I suppose!)

Though Dunlop Tyres went on to become a world beating company, their products displacing solid rubber tyres around the world, within ten years, John Boyd Dunlop himself did not make a great fortune from his invention. Yet, he is still remembered for his inventive moment, with his son - so all is not lost.

Dunlop Tyres has diversified since then - there are Dunlop Motorcycle Tires (Tyres Br.), Dunlop Truck Tires (Tyres), Dunlop Racing Tires (Tyres Br.), Dunlop Mud Tires (Tyres Br.) and beyond that into merchandizing: Dunlop bags, Dunlop golf equipment, Dunlop bowling shoes, Dunlop squash rackets (racquets Br.), Dunlop tennis rackets (racquets Br.) and Dunlop golf balls. Dunlop has become a global brand. Yet, how many know that John Boyd Dunlop was a relatively humble vet with a practice in Belfast in the 19th century? A few more, now, perhaps.

What strikes me about all of this is that although Dunlop lived a relatively quiet life, that one moment of invention for his son, changed the world, in some significant way. It was Dunlop's pneumatic tire (tyre Br.) that was commercialized. It is Dunlop tires (tyres Br.) that many of us drive around on. Dunlop could have become a big industrialist - but he didn't have the appetite - and perhaps not the aptitude - to commercialize his work - so this was done by William Harvey Du Cros. So, although Dunlop did not become a mega-rich Bill Gates type figure - as he could have done, through revolutionizing transport - he did transcend the everyday limits of his life - and left behind a brand name that continues to grow until today. Yet, all he was really trying to do was make his son's tricycle ride a little more comfortable. I find that rather sweet - but also significant. It is difficult for us to know the full impact of what we do in life. John Boyd Dunlop didn't know - and neither do we.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and ten months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and three months, and Tiarnan, twenty months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Karl Benz: child prodigy.

You may find the name Karl Benz familiar. It should be. From him sprang Mercedes Benz, Daimler Benz and Daimler-Chrysler. Yet, did you know, he was a child prodigy?

Many of history's most accomplished individuals began life as child prodigies. Prodigy is not just a childhood phenomenon, therefore: it can presage the beginning of a most productive life. That this is not more widely known is simply because in time we remember these former prodigies for their adult achievements - and forget that once they were prodigious children. Examination of the lives of adult geniuses, turns up many who were child prodigies.

What did Karl Benz do? Well, he was the inventor of the petrol (or gasoline) powered automobile; he held the patents for all the processes that allowed a petrol powered internal combustion engine to work; he invented the carburettor; the water radiator, the ignition system based on sparks from a battery; the spark plug; the clutch; the accelerator. It would be fairly true to say, that he invented the car (in the sense of most of the things that allowed it function in the way that is familiar to us all). He also invented an engine now used in motorsports - the flat engine or boxer engine - oh, and the axle-pivot steering system. On top of that, he made car designs, too.

All of this accomplishment has its roots in a scientifically prodigious childhood - a prodigiousness that was clear in his primary school years. Though he came from a very poor background (owing in large part, one would think to his father being killed, in a railway accident, when Karl was only two years old), his mother struggled to ensure he got the best of educational opportunities. He didn't disappoint her and he started at the scientifically oriented Lyzeum at nine years old. From there he moved onto the Poly-Technical University and finally another University - the University of Karlsruhe which he entered at the age of 15 to study Mechanical Engineering.

After his formal education, Karl Benz, like many people of genius, found it difficult to fit into normal working life. He moved from job to job, never really finding his place. After seven years of this, he started a mechanical workshop with Auguste Ritter. Though the first year was a disaster - to which he responded by buying out his partner - this new independence proved the foundation of his future success. It allowed him to work on his ideas. Soon he had invented a two-stroke engine. Thence forth a river of inventions flowed from him, each contributing to the motor age.

It was not until he had formed another company, however, Benz and Company, having been sidelined by others, in his first company, that he was free to work on his dream: "a horseless carriage". In 1885, he invented the Benz Patent Motorwagen, the world's first automobile. The age of the car had begun.

He was born in the age of the railway, and by the time he died in 1929, the world had been transformed by the car - and it was largely his doing.

Benz is but one example of a child prodigy, who grew up to be an adult who changed the world. I shall look at others, over time, for each is an interesting example of what may come from a prodigiously gifted child who receives the opportunities they need to flower as they might.

(Karl Benz, child prodigy, inventor of the automobile, 1844 - 1929).

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three or Tiarnan fifteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)