Michelin

In 1889 two brothers,Édouard MichelinandAndré Michelin, ran a rubber factory inClermont-Ferrand, France. One day, a cyclist whose pneumatic tyre needed repair turned up at the factory. The tyre was glued to the rim, and it took over three hours to remove and repair the tyre, 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 tyre failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tyre, 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 aremovable pneumatic tyrewhich was used byCharles Terrontto win the world's first long-distance cycle race, the 1891Paris–Brest–Paris.