MILESTONE BIRTHDAY FOR FORGOTTEN GENIUS

The R W Thomson Memorial Fellowship @RWTMF is celebrating the 200th birthday of a remarkable inventor and engineer. In 1845, Thomson invented the “Aerial Wheel”. He held the UK, French and US patents. Twenty years later, he pioneered the solid rubber tyre as fitted to his majestic Thomson Road Steamers.

Prolific

Robert William Thomson was born in Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, on June 29, 1822. A prolific inventor, respected civil and mechanical engineer, he won the praise of Michael Faraday. After a relatively short life that took him to America and Asia, he died in Edinburgh on March 8, 1873.

The Thomson pneumatic tyre, UK patent, Sir Arthur Du Cros, Bt., former managing director of the Dunlop Rubber Company, said of Thomson, “He discovered the principle of the pneumatic tyre, and recorded his final specification in a masterly and fully illustrated document.”