CHAPTER XI.
THE SADDLE.
Naturally, the saddle for the steel horse followed that long used on the living one. It began as a pear-shaped sheet metal plate, inclosed between two pieces of pigskin, sometimes with a thin padding of hair and sometimes without. Of course, this was hard underneath and rigid on the edges, and gradually there was enforced consideration of the practical difference between sitting on a broad-surfaced horse saddle, with nothing for the legs to do, and a concentration of pressure on a small surface, with the legs compelled to be in constant working up and down. Take a chair—not a big, stuffed Turkish chair, but any decent, ordinary one—and observe how large a portion of the body the support is spread over; then assume the nearly vertical position and observe how small the available surface left for support, and it will not seem strange that the saddle is a serious problem in cycling, and one not wholly solved yet.
The first step in advance was the appearance of the “suspension,” the upper plate being left off and the leather being hung from three points of support, without padding; this left the edges flexible. In later years the so-called “hammock” type appeared, and in essence this is still in vogue in all the saddles bearing the name of “hygienic,” the leather being hung from the front as one point of support, and a cantle (formerly of steel, but now largely of wood), serving to give the needed breadth at the rear. Yet the principle is the same as originally used, many years ago, by Lamplugh & Brown of Birmingham in their “suspension,” and afterward in their “Long Distance” suspension. And this principle can never be quite abandoned.
The early saddles had some form of spring under them, and were not made to attach without one. The “[boneshaker]” saddle rested flatly on a very long plate, like a leaf from an ordinary wagon spring, extending from the head clear back to the rear wheel; but this was not so much from choice as dictated by the construction as a whole. On the high wheel the usual support was a flat spring, hinged at the head, and curving back to slide slightly on the backbone by some sort of movable clip. This was varied in several ways—by curved or spiral springs, and even by suspension from enormously thick rubber bands; but the most notable one was the Arab Cradle, a spring formed of a single piece of steel rod, bent about into four acting single coils, which had an open-and-shut work like that of the familiar safety pin of the nursery.
The early rigid saddle survives substantially in the “hard” saddle of the [Brown type]; the old “suspension” is in the type with hard nose, steel cantle and stiff sides; the “hammock” is represented by the soft-nosed and flexible-sides saddle of the Hunt X type, having wood cantle and aiming to support gently everywhere; the air saddle, one of the oldest, reappears in pneumatics of various sorts; the old “pan” seat is now in the [Christy], with solid metal base, which does not touch the body, but supports by raised pads; the “cradle” is represented by various looped wire springs, usually of a few wound coils, which are to yield by compression. The term “pigskin,” as designating the bicycle saddle, seems, however, to have entirely dropped out, as has also the use of that material itself. Cycle saddles are now made almost exclusively of tanned leather, and it may be suggested that the increase in the number of cyclers has outrun the increase in the number of pigs; but probably the saddle maker has some commercial reason for the change.
SAFETY SADDLES.
A popular type of saddle on the early safety was the [Garford]. It had a leather top, which was mounted on a U-shaped spring, the open part of the U being in the rear. Necessarily this spring was a very heavy one, but it undoubtedly served the purpose for which it was designed, as, owing to its great height, it was particularly useful on the low frames then in use by those who desired a longer reach. In England, all bicycle saddles are made larger, longer and heavier in every way than our American models, and they are fitted with some sort of a flat or coiled spring.
A little later again, these large saddles were abandoned for the saddle of a smaller size, having a hooked pommel and steel cantle fastened to a very rigid and unyielding spring, and had leather tops, and of which the type known as the Sager was very popular. Another popular type still in use was known as the Mesinger, the base of which consisted of strands of rattan woven into a style resembling chair seats, and which was covered by a layer of stitched felt and leather, suitably mounted on round wire springs. The leather portion of this had an opening of a somewhat irregular V shape. The Climax saddle, which had a small degree of popularity also, was made of a series of small coiled wire springs which were nickel plated, but even this style of saddle was sometimes covered with thin pieces of leather. The next change in construction, as a variation on these, was produced by the makers of the Hunt saddle. Their saddle had a leather cover lined with all wool felt, which rested upon a laced framework of leather strands, these being fastened like the Mesinger, and having a bent wood cantle instead of one of sheet steel. The makers of the Sager saddle also made a pneumatic saddle which had a flat wooden base, through which protruded two valves, which were connected to two small rubber inner tubes, and these were covered by a leather covering which was laced to the wooden base. This pattern with some modifications is still made by the Sager Company. The above list, of course, is somewhat incomplete from the fact that of the many freak saddles that were introduced few survived, and therefore are hardly worth considering here as leading up to the present types of saddles shown in 1898.