In my chapter on “Ankle-Motion” I would say that the wonderful power therein asserted as possible was attained by having the saddle well over the work. Before disposing finally of this digression, let me express my pleasure that these subjects are meeting with general and enlightened discussion. However much opinions may differ, I regret, as a loyal Yankee, that we in America have to depend so largely upon cross-water importations for the initiative; but it is hoped that such importations may always be on the free list, maugre the high-tariff proclivities of the writer and many others like him on this side.
The next point of importance is the mechanical means whereby the rider transmits a revolving motion to the drive-wheel, and to lead up to this let us discuss the evolution from walking to riding. The actual development has been of a legitimate character; first, walking; second, walking with the trunk supported on rolling mechanism; third, propulsion by means of mechanical things like legs, the entire body supported upon rolling mechanism; fourth, propulsion and support all by means of, and upon, rolling mechanism.
The Dennis Johnson wheel.
The early bicycle, such as that of Dennis Johnson, patented in England, No. 4321, 1818, did not support the rider entirely free from the ground. It consisted in a pair of wheels placed under him, constituting a sort of third or rolling leg, the feet, though not for support, still touching the ground. This machine is a fair sample of an intermediate stage between the era of oscillating devices subjoined to the trunk by nature—to wit, the legs—and that of the present cycle. In the Johnson machine the legs are used for projectile force only, and serve as a motor, the weight of the body being supported on rolling mechanism as aforesaid; hence it was a more natural and palpable sequence to walking than other prior contrivances in which the rider was raised upon a platform such as shown in the machine of Bolton, patented in the United States, September 29, 1804.
The Bolton machine.
The Bolton and similar machines really belong to a different class from that of Johnson, but if we confine ourselves to our bicycle or balancing-machine, thus throwing out the Bolton class, the development from the leg to the wheel method proceeded in order, for we have next the Lallement crank-wheel, United States patent, November 20, 1866, which represents substantially the present single-track type.
The Lallement machine.