On This Day

Saturday 4th April 1931

89 years ago

Andre Michelin (77), who built the first factories for the mass production of rubber car tires, died. In 1889 he ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France with his brother Eduard. One day, a cyclist whose pneumatic tire needed repair turned up at the factory. The tire was glued to the rim, and it took over three hours to remove and repair the tire, which then needed to be left overnight to dry. The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bicycle into the factory yard to test. After only a few hundred metres, the tire failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tire, and he and his brother worked on creating their own version, one that did not need to be glued to the rim. Michelin was incorporated on 28 May 1889. In 1891 Michelin took out its first patent for a removable pneumatic tire which was used by Charles Terront to win the world's first long distance cycle race, the 1891 Paris–Brest–Paris. In 1934, Michelin introduced a tire which, if punctured, would run on a special foam lining; a design now known as a run-flat tire (self-supporting type). Michelin developed a key innovation in tire history, the 1946 radial tire (then known as the "X" tire). It was developed with the front-wheel-drive Citroën Traction Avant and Citroën 2CV in mind. Michelin had bought the then-bankrupt Citroën in the 1930s. Because of its superiority in handling and fuel economy, use of this tire quickly spread throughout Europe and Asia. In the U.S., the outdated bias-ply tire persisted, with market share of 87% in 1967. In 1968, Consumer Reports, an influential American magazine, acknowledged the superiority of the radial construction, setting off a rapid decline in Michelin's competitor technology. Even in the U.S., the radial tire now has a market share of 100%. In the 1920s and 1930s, Michelin operated large rubber plantations in Vietnam. Conditions at these plantations led to the famous labour movement Phu Rieng Do.[8] "French Indochina – The French community of about 40,000 lived in the European quarters, – for the mass of the population the reality was forced labour – working to produce the colony's exports of rice, tin, tea, and above all – rubber – the source of the fortune of the Michelin company."[9] In 1988, Michelin acquired the tire and rubber manufacturing divisions of the American B.F. Goodrich Company founded in 1870. This included the Norwood, North Carolina manufacturing plant which supplied tires to the U.S. Space Shuttle Program.[10][11] Two years later, it bought Uniroyal, Inc., founded in 1892 as the United States Rubber Company. Uniroyal Australia had already been bought by Bridgestone in 1980. Michelin also controls 90% of Taurus Tire in Hungary, as well as Kormoran,[12] a Polish brand. As of 1 September 2008, Michelin is again the world's largest tire manufacturer after spending two years as number two behind Bridgestone.[13] Michelin produces tires in France, Spain, Germany, the USA, the UK, Canada, Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Italy and several other countries.