Goodrich founded the first U.S. tire industry in Akron, Ohio. Goodrich made his first pneumatic tire in 1896 two years before founding the Goodyear Tire Company. In 1903, Harvey Firestone began manufacturing tires in Akron.Many improvements to tires followed afterwards. One is the tubeless tire introduced by Firestone in 1948 and is a standard on all automobiles today. Experiments on treads of tires have been done to reveal that slicks or tread-less tires work well on asphalt at intense speed. This is why racecars have no treaded, or lack of, on the tires. Recently, tire companies produce tires that can keep on rolling even after being punctured.The pain and discomfort, obviously, would be excruciating without pneumatic tires. Solid rubber tires are still in existence but only for heavy construction equipment. Not for road travel because of the lack of resistance to a sudden movement. Air in a pneumatic tire is not dense, therefore has the ability to compress and expand, simply put, to move. SUSPENSION SYSTEMThe pneumatic tires could only cushion so much bounce. There still was much need for improvement in the quality of automobiles. Something needed to cushion the ride more efficiently. Someone needed to invent the suspension system. Most people think the only purpose of a suspension system in an automobile is to make the ride more comfortable and less bumpy. This is true, but isnt the only purpose, nor is it the main purpose. The main purpose was safety. Even with the aid of pneumatic tires the ride was still rough and this bumping up and down made it uneasy to steer.The first suspension system used leather straps to soften the blow of rough roads. They came out around the 1500s for horse carriage. The carriages were like and upside down table. The tops of the legs were attached to the leather strap and the other end of the leather was attached to a separate frame below. This however created more motion, which defe...
