Back in the early days of automobiles, air-filled tires were simply a cushion to take a little bit of the jar and jounce out of treks across trails and cobblestone paths designed for horse and wagon.

Q: Back in the 1970s, I was working as a mechanic for a while. The shop I worked for had a tire truing machine that would rotate the tire while the blades would remove tread slowly until the tire had ...