> The tire’s meteoric rise might have surprised nineteenth-century observers of the wheel.

To be somewhat pedantic, tires were in use for the nineteenth century and earlier. Tire generally refers to anything wrapped around a wheel making contact with the ground. Before pneumatic tires, there were iron tires. These were wrought iron rings placed around wooden wagon wheels.

Obviously the article is talking about pneumatic tires here, but I thought that I'd note that there are other, prior types.