5,500 years in the making

JACO DE KLERK discovers that while the wheel can be considered one of the most important technological advancements in human history, tyres claim this title for the transport industry.

One couldn’t narrate the tale of tyres without first mentioning the wheel. “A Sumerian pictograph, dated about 3500 BC, shows a sledge equipped with wheels,” notes Britannica, the oldest English general encyclopaedia. “The idea of wheeled transportation may have come from the use of logs for rollers, but the oldest known wheels were wooden disks consisting of three carved planks clamped together by transverse struts.”

The encyclopaedia adds that spoked wheels appeared around 2000 BC, when they were used on chariots in Asia Minor – the peninsula of land that today constitutes the Asian portion of Turkey. “Later developments include iron hubs turning on greased axles, and the introduction of a tyre in the form of an iron ring that was expanded by heat and dropped over the rim, which, on cooling, shrank and drew the members tightly together.”

Since then, tyres have moved from merely squeezing and protecting the wheel to being an integral part of safe and efficient transport. In its piece, “John Dunlop, Charles Goodyear, and the History of Tires”, ThoughtCo – a US-based reference site with over two decades of creating educational content – notes: “Vehicles wouldn’t be operational if it hadn’t been for Charles Goodyear. You can have an engine, you can have a chassis, you can have a drive train and wheels. But without tires, you’re stuck.” 

Tyres weren’t initially intended for motorised vehicles, however. “In 1844, more than 50 years before the first rubber tyres would appear on cars, Goodyear patented a process known as vulcanisation. This process involved heating and removing the sulphur from rubber, [which] had been discovered in the Amazon rainforest of Peru by French scientist Charles de la Condamine in 1735,” explains ThoughtCo, adding that vulcanisation made rubber waterproof and winter-proof, while at the same time preserving its elasticity: “While Goodyear’s claim to have invented vulcanisation was challenged, he prevailed in court and is today remembered as the sole inventor of vulcanised rubber. And that became hugely important once people realised it would be perfect for making tyres.” 

These first renditions of tyres were solid rubber. “That changed with John Boyd Dunlop, a Scottish veterinarian and the recognised inventor of the first practical pneumatic [inflatable] tyre,” ThoughtCo points out. “His patent, granted in 1888, wasn’t for automobile tyres, however. Instead, it was intended to create tyres for bicycles.

“It took another seven years for someone to make the leap. André Michelin and his brother Edouard, who had previously patented a removable bike tyre, were the first to use pneumatic tyres on an automobile,” it continues, although it adds that these weren’t durable: “It wasn’t until Philip Strauss invented the combination tyre and air-filled inner tube in 1911 that pneumatic tyres could be used on automobiles with success.”

The next rotation aligned tyres with the rollers that we know today. “In 1947, the US-based Goodyear Tyre Company – named after vulcanisation pioneer Charles Goodyear – advanced the tubeless tyre to compensate for the industry’s oil usage. This effectively fused the tyre and tube into a single part by virtue of an inner-liner that made the tyre layers air-tight, removing the need for an inner-tube,” notes news and tyre comparison site WhatTyre in its piece, “Reinventing the wheel: A brief history of tyres”.

Since 2005, sustainability has been the name of the game, as global tyre manufacturers came together under the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Tire Industry Project (TIP) to research any potential human health and environmental impacts associated with tyres through their lifecycle.

Today’s tyre manufacturers are pushing sustainability even further. Continental, for example, is increasingly focusing on renewable and recycled materials in its tyre production, with the share of these materials averaging 26% in 2024. The company expects an increase of two to three percentage points in 2025, while maintaining high safety and performance standards. 

The company now uses silica derived from rice husk ash – an agricultural byproduct from Asian agriculture and Italian risotto rice production – instead of traditional quartz sand. This bio-based silica is manufactured through more energy-efficient processes that support the circular economy. “Innovation and sustainability go hand in hand at Continental. Using silica from the ashes of rice husks in our tyres shows that we are breaking completely new ground – without compromising on safety, quality, or performance,” emphasises Jorge Almeida, head of sustainability at Continental Tires.  

Carbon black presents another sustainability opportunity. Continental utilises bio-based carbon blacks derived from organic materials like tall oil – a waste product from the paper industry – rather than crude oil. The company also produces carbon black from recycled pyrolysis oil derived from end-of-life tyres.

“We are systematically increasing the share of renewable and recycled materials in our raw material portfolio. In five years, we aim to surpass the 40% mark,” explains Almeida. “To achieve sustainable mobility, we are constantly searching for even more environmentally friendly materials. After extensive testing, we integrate them into production as quickly as possible,” he adds.

This approach demonstrates how modern tyre manufacturing continues to evolve, balancing performance with environmental responsibility in ways the ancient wheel inventors could never have imagined. From those first Sumerian pictographs showing wheeled sledges to today’s sophisticated, sustainable tyres, this industry has truly been 5,500 years in the making.