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2. Bicycle History & the Vade Mecum (1885)

2. Bicycle History & the Vade Mecum, 1885

First revision: Jan.07, 2014
Last change: Jan.08, 2014

A Brief History of Bicycles.

The bicycle was the first step away from the reliance on the horse for transport and the dawn of personal mechanical transport. The cycle liberated people from the areas they lived in and brought about immense social change allowing many ordinary people to move more freely around the country, a fact which is often overlooked by historians preferring to attribute such change solely to the railways! Indeed it is the bicycle that is credited with reducing inbreeding in small communities!

Bicycles originated in the vague form in France around 1770. The first bicycles were quite amazing contraptions and when one thinks of the perilous state of the muddy cart track roads with a multitude of potholes it is difficult to imagine anyone being able to successfully cover any useful distance. As with every invention, there is always a multitude of people ready to improve on an original design and the bicycle was certainly no exception. For instance, at the turn of the century in Washington DC, there were two buildings that held every patent in the U.S. One building held patents covering every type of product you can think of and the other was reserved specifically for bicycle patents.

It is difficult to be sure who exactly invented the bicycle but the Individuals mentioned below were definitely at the forefront of its development.

Around 1818 to 1820 the very basic Hobby Horse or Running Machine was invented by a German Baron named Karl Von Drais and was propelled forward by the rider's toes or feet running directly on the ground. Patented in France in 1818, this invention was improved during the 1860s when two French brothers, Ernest & Pierre Michaux, fitted pedals to the front wheel. Their machine was known as a Velocipede or boneshaker. These machines manufactured in France by Cie Parisienne became the first commercially made bicycles.

Kirkpatrick McMillan, a blacksmith from Dumfriesshire, also developed a pedal-powered Hobby Horse which used cranks. He gave a public demonstration of his machine with a 70-mile ride to Glasgow in 1842. This would seem to be an important landmark in bicycle design and the start of the development of what was to be known as the safety bicycle (near equal wheels, low diamond frame, pedals to chain transmission) however some historians dismiss McMillan's contribution.

The unequal diameter 'ordinary bicycles' (penny farthings etc.) were unstable and difficult to mount and dismount and therefore only popular with enthusiasts and of course totally unsuitable for women to ride. The reason large front-wheeled bicycles were made was to stop the machines going down into the potholes that were strewn all over the road, remembering that the wheels were just solid metal, there were not even solid rubber tires at this stage!

Pioneering names associated with further bicycle development were George Singer, Dan Rudge, Thomas Humber, Harry John Lawson, and James Starley (John Kemp Starley was the nephew of James Starley and co-founder of Rover)

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