For a brief period about 1820 the hobby horse was very popular with English dandies. Our illustration reproduces a contemporary print. The (1909) motor cycle shown in the small picture is compassing a mile in 40 seconds.
The very earliest bicycle appears to have been the so-called hobby horse or dandy horse introduced about the year 1818 by Baron von Drais in France. It was a primitive vehicle, the user of which half rode and half ran, propulsion being effected simply by thrusting the feet against the ground. In effect the rider of the hobby horse ran with a stride greatly lengthened through the partial support afforded by the saddle, and with correspondingly increased speed. He could, of course, on occasion coast down hill or on a level surface when considerable momentum had been acquired, and supports for his feet were provided to facilitate this end. At first the machine promised to become popular, but it was soon ridiculed out of court.
Something like twenty years later—that is to say about the year 1840—a treadle-bicycle was invented by Kirkpatrick MacMillan, an English blacksmith. The machine did not become popular, however, and it was not until simple cranks were fitted to the front wheel of the bicycle that this form of vehicle came into anything like general use. This very simple expedient was first suggested, seemingly, by Pierre Lallament, a Frenchman, in 1866. His machine came to be known in England as the bone shaker, and doubtless it deserved its name, for as yet neither the wire suspension wheel nor the rubber tire had been invented. Both these improvements were quickly introduced, however; the suspension wheel by Mr. E. A. Cowper, in 1868. The first rubber tires, used about 1870, were solid, and it was not until 1888 that the Irishman, Mr. J. B. Dunlap, introduced the pneumatic tire. Meantime the geared bicycle, with which every one is nowadays familiar, had been introduced in 1879 by Mr. H. J. Lawson and brought to the familiar form of the "safety" in 1885 by Mr. Starley. The combination of low wheels geared to any desired speed with pneumatic tires was the finishing stroke.
The problem of making the bicycle a relatively speedy vehicle had indeed been solved by the use of a large wheel—sometimes sixty inches in diameter—operated by a simple crank after the manner of the early machine of Lallament; but while bicycles of this type attained a considerable measure of popularity, the danger of taking a "header" on encountering any obstacle in the road was one that seemed to the average person to out-measure the pleasure or benefit to be derived from rapid transit thus attained. The safety bicycle, however, practically eliminated this danger. It was, moreover, comparatively easy to balance; and not long after its introduction in perfected form, with pneumatic tires, it had made an appeal to which all the world responded. For a few years the safety bicycle was the most conspicuous of vehicles on every country road, and partisans of outdoor life believed that the health and stamina of the generation were to be increased immensely by the new vehicle.
Nor were these anticipations altogether visionary, as undoubtedly the bicycle did do much to improve the average health of nearly all classes of citizens. But its popularity was too suddenly acquired to be permanent, and at the very moment when it was most used, another vehicle was suddenly developed which was to lead to its practical abandonment by the great mass of people for whom it might have been supposed to afford a means of permanent recreation.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE BICYCLE.
Fig. 1.—The hobby horse or dandy horse, the forerunner of the bicycle, which was patented in France in 1818 by Charles, Baron von Drais. Fig. 2.—The so-called "Bone Shaker" invented about 1865 by Pierre Lallement. Fig. 3.—"Phantom" bicycle introduced in England about 1869, its most important improvement consisting of wire spokes in tension in place of rigid spokes. Fig. 4.—"Bantam" bicycle introduced in 1893. Its peculiarity is an epicyclic gearing through which the wheel is made to revolve more rapidly than the cranks. Fig. 5.—An early safety bicycle introduced in 1876. The crank and lever driving apparatus is similar to that of a machine made by Kirkpatrick MacMillan in 1839. Fig. 6.—"Kangaroo" bicycle patented in England by W. Hillman in 1884. The peculiarity consists in the use of a chain gearing to increase the speed of the wheel. The principle is precisely that of the modern bicycle, though the application of the chain to the front wheel made a cumbersome apparatus.
THE COMING OF THE AUTOMOBILE
The vehicle that effected this sudden eclipse of the bicycle is, as everyone knows, that form of power-driven carriage known in England as the motor car, and in France and America as the automobile. The first form of this vehicle to gain popularity was a tricycle driven by a small steam motor. But almost immediately the recently devised gas engine was called into requisition, and after that the development of the automobile was only a matter of detail. But, as so often happens with practical inventions, there are disputed questions of priority regarding the application of the gasoline engine to this particular use. The engine itself was perfected, as we have elsewhere seen, about 1876, by the German, Dr. Otto.