History's Best Selling Products of 1888

Extra! Extra! On the home front and across the nation, 1888 saw a swell surge of swell Yankee ingenuity and home-front craftsmanship in the world of items! Leading the charge were mighty, top-selling marvels like Pneumatic Tire and Looking Backward: 2000–1887, capturing the public’s fancy in grand fashion. Distinguished creators from industry leaders like John Boyd Dunlop and Edward Bellamy proved their mettle with essential classics, delivering craftsmanship that swept main street from coast to coast as genuine top-flight hits. Step right up and inspect our complete, rank-ordered historical archive below!

1. Pneumatic Tire

   Released in 1888 by John Boyd Dunlop

   On October 31, 1888, Scottish veterinarian John Boyd Dunlop took a pivotal step that would forever change transportation by filing a provisional patent application in Belfast for his 'air-tyre'. This date marks the formal beginning of the journey for an invention born from a simple desire to improve his son's comfort. Observing his young son's struggles while riding a tricycle with solid rubber tires on rough cobblestone streets, Dunlop envisioned a solution. The application on this day secured his claim to the idea of using a pressurized tube of air to cushion a wheel, setting the stage for a revolution that would smooth the ride for cyclists and, eventually, for motorists across the globe, making travel faster and far more comfortable.

2. Looking Backward: 2000–1887

   Released in 1888 by Edward Bellamy, Ticknor and Company

   Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward: 2000–1887," published in 1888, stands as a seminal work in American utopian literature and social reform. Its release coincided with an era of profound industrialization, economic inequality, and labor unrest in the United States, providing a powerful imaginative escape and a detailed blueprint for a more equitable society. The novel's immediate and overwhelming popularity demonstrated a widespread yearning for alternatives to the perceived injustices of Gilded Age capitalism, directly sparking political and social movements. It offered a vision of a harmonious, technologically advanced future built on principles of cooperation rather than competition, profoundly impacting the intellectual and political discourse of its time.