William "Willie" Hume was an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 cyclist

Cycling

Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...

. He demonstrated the supremacy of John Boyd Dunlop

John Boyd Dunlop

John Boyd Dunlop was a Scottish inventor. He was one of the founders of the rubber company that bore his name, Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company....

's newly invented pneumatic tyres in 1889, winning the tyre's first ever races in Ireland and then England.

Career

In March 1889 Hume, the captain of the Belfast Cruisers Cycling Club, was the first member of the public to purchase a "safety bicycle

Safety bicycle

A safety bicycle is a type of bicycle that became very popular beginning in the late 1880s as an alternative to the penny-farthing or ordinary and is now the most common type of bicycle. Early bicycles of this style were known as safety bicycles because they were noted for, and marketed as, being...

" fitted with Dunlop's newly patented pneumatic tyres. Dunlop suggested that it would be advantageous to Hume to use them in a race. Thus on 18 May 1889 entered—and won—all four cycling events at the Queen's College Sports held on the North of Ireland Cricket Club Grounds, (or Queens College playing fields) at Cherryvale, Belfast.

Entrepreneur and paper manufacturer Harvey du Cros

Harvey du Cros

Harvey du Cros was a Conservative Party politician of England. He was the son of Edouard Pierre du Cros and Maria Molloy and was educated at The King's Hospital, Dublin....

 was present at the meet, and was so impressed that within six months he had acquired the patent rights (or in 1896) for £3,000 and floated the first Pneumatic Tyre Company.

Hume went on to be the person to introduce the new invention to England, when, in 1889, he raced on pneumatics in Liverpool, winning all but one of the cycling events.

The Golden Book

Hume's achievements were celebrated in 1938 when Cycling Weekly

Cycling Weekly

Cycling Weekly is a British cycling magazine. It is published by IPC Media and is devoted to the sport and past-time of cycling. It is affectionately referred to by British club cyclists as "The Comic".-History:...

, then known simply as Cycling awarded him his own page in the Golden Book of Cycling

Golden Book of Cycling

The Golden Book of Cycling was created in 1932 by Cycling, a British cycling magazine,to celebrate "the Sport and Pastime of Cycling by recording the outstanding rides, deeds and accomplishments of cyclists, officials and administrators." There exists only a single copy of this compendium of...

.

Patent dispute

Dunlop's patent, which he had sold to Du Cros, was legally disputed. Two years after he was granted the patent Dunlop was officially informed that it was invalid as Scottish inventor Robert William Thomson (1822–1873) had patented the idea in France in 1846 and in the US in 1847. Dunlop's patent was later declared invalid on the basis of Thomson's prior art.

In the court case Hume's formal submission to the Court of states:

MSS.328/N5/3/2/13A Typescript Legal Statements concerning the invention of the pneumatic tyre ?c.1890s
Three items
Statement made by John Boyd Dunlop to John B. Purchase of 11 Queen Victoria Street for the Pneumatic Tyre Company, charting the history of his invention of the pneumatic tyre, undated.
Pages three and four of a statement made by Finlay Sinclair to the same [pages one and two not present].
Statement of William Hume of Temple More Avenue, Belfast, manufacturer, attached to the above, in which he claimed to have been the first person to have purchased a roadster cycle fitted with Dunlop tyres. This happened in March 1889. In May 1889 he purchased a Dunlop racer and won four first prizes at the Queen's College Sports, Belfast. This statement is annotated in manuscript by Dunlop.
These statements are in draft form with manuscript alterations