Louis Rustin

Who is Louis Rustin?

Louis Désiré Auguste Rustin was a French cyclist and repairer of tyres in Paris who invented the puncture patch. Car and bicycle tyres had until then been complicated to mend after the inner tube, which held the air, had been penetrated through the outer tyre by a flint or other sharp object. Rustine’s solution was a small disc of thin rubber to stick to the inner tube over the hole. He patented his invention in 1921 and presented it at a meeting of the Touring Club de France in 1922. Puncture patches are still commonly known in France as rustines.