Introduction

Introduction 

This blog began by covering various topics related to the history of the bicycle with text, old photographs, real photo postcards (RPPCs), etc., but has gradually developed in to covering social history topics as portrayed in real photo postcards.

Below are links to other articles on this blog that are related to both social history and bicycle history.

 The High-wheel Bicycle

The Safety Bicycle

Diavolo and the Loop the Loop

 Social History and the Bicycle as Portrayed in Early Real Photo Postcards

Women and the Bicycle During the Victorian Era - A Photographic History

Victorians, their Bicycles and their Pets - A Photographic Survey

Resilience in Adversity: Real Photo Postcard Images of African Americans During the Early 20th Century

 The Velocipede

     Since the domestication of animals and the invention of the wheel, the most sophisticated mode of personal transportation had been the horse or an animal-drawn cart or wagon. Over the centuries, these conveyances were improved upon but the basic technology remained the same. When the bicycle first appeared on the scene, it was truly a revolution that took society out of the personal transportation stone age.

     America’s love affair with the bicycle has its roots in the 1860s, during the era of the two-wheeled velocipede or “boneshakers” as these solid-wheeled, human-powered vehicles were called.  

Carte de Visite (CDV) of a rider on his velocipede. Late 1860s.

     The word “velocipede” was derived from the Latin velox, or veloc, meaning swift or fast, and ped-, foot.  The term covers a wide range of two-, three- and four-wheeled human-powered conveyances that were made in the nineteenth century. The development of the two-wheeled velocipede continued until the early 1870s when the high-wheel--or “ordinary bicycle” as it was known--emerged.

Cabinet Card, 1880s. A nice example of a rider and his high-wheel or "ordinary" bicycle.

    The high-wheel, like the two-wheeled velocipede, was an expensive bicycle to make because every component was hand-made by trained craftsmen. In today’s equivalent currency they sold for thousands of dollars; consequently, cycling was initially reserved for the well-to-do in society.

     The modern, high-performance bicycle is a state-of-the-art, high-tech machine, quite technologically advanced from the bicycles of the late nineteenth century.  Until the introduction of the safety bicycle in 1885, the forerunner of the modern bicycle, the high-wheel was considered the most advanced, ultramodern bicycle of its time.

     The bicycle was not the invention of a single individual but was rather the culmination of a long period of experimentation by many talented mechanics and mechanical experimenters.

     The earliest example of what we would recognize today as the precursor of the modern bicycle was the Draisine or the Hobby Horse as it was also known.  

An early engraving of a Drazine. It had no pedals. The rider would propel himself along by pushing his feet along the ground.

     Invented in 1817 by Karl von Drais, an eccentric German baron, it was a hand-made, artful conveyance with a wood frame and two wooden wheels that were not unlike those on wagons from the same time period. The rider was propelled forward by pushing himself along the ground with his feet, and it was similar to riding a scooter, only while seated. Drais’s machine had neither pedals nor brakes but he did come up with a method that allowed the front wheel to pivot on the frame, so it was steerable. Here is a link to a YouTube video of someone who made a replica of an early Draisine.

An early 19th century print of Baron von Drais on his Draisine. 

     Despite Drais’s attempt to promote it, the Draisine’ s utility was short lived and it wasn’t long before it fell into obscurity.     

     The decades following the debut of the Draisine, until the introduction of the two-wheeled velocipede in the 1860s, were technologically active. Very competent mechanics emerged who worked diligently at producing an efficient human-powered machine. Many new and unusual designs were introduced although they were mostly three and four-wheeled conveyances that, unlike the Draisine, now incorporated metal parts in their construction. Some used foot-treadles or a hand-crank to propel them along; some were for a single rider and others for two or more; none of these designs had very practical or long-lasting applications and rarely progressed beyond the prototype stage.  In the 1890s, James Johnson, a descendent of Kirkpatrick MacMillan, presented evidence that his ancestor allegedly created the first self-propelled, two-wheeled velocipede in 1839, although most historians are now in agreement that such a device did not emerge until the 1860s.

     Pierre and Ernest Michaud, believed they were the first to develop and manufacture a viable two-wheeled velocipede in 1863. However, Pierre Lallement, a French coach builder, claimed he had conceived of the idea two years earlier when he was inspired by an old Draisine he had seen. He was the first to file a US patent for it in 1866.  

Another example of a rider with a velocipede. A CDV from the late 1860s.

    The debate over who was likely the more plausible inventor was brought to light in 1994 by historian David Herlihy.  Although Michaud and his company should be credited with the development and manufacturing of the first self-propelled, two-wheeled velocipedes, Lallement qualifies as the original inventor (Herlihy, 1994). For the first time, a velocipede had pedals and a crank mechanism connected to the front-wheel axle and a rider could set himself in motion simply by pedaling. It was like a child’s tricycle, only with two wheels, so the rider had to first learn to balance himself while riding. The two-wheeled velocipede had a front wheel that was slightly larger than the rear one and it had either a wooden, cast iron or steel frame.  The front wheel was typically 40 inches in diameter and the rear one 36 inches and they were heavy and awkward machines to master.  Many had a band of iron cladding over the wooden wheels to protect them; this resulted in a machine with limited traction and usefulness.  Initially, the pedals on a two-wheeled velocipede were no more than large wooden spools.  Pedaling and steering at the same time turned out to be a problem, with the wheel rubbing against the rider’s leg when he made a turn; this wasn’t overcome until the chain drive came into common use more than a decade later. The velocipede was steerable but brakes didn’t come until later with the development of the high-wheel bicycle. If you needed to stop you would simply jump off, pedal backwards, drag your feet along the ground, or push the sole of your shoe against the rotating front wheel.

      Throughout the 1860s, French firms, and to a lesser degree British makers, were the ones advancing velocipede technology. It quickly became quite fashionable for a young man to be seen riding one of the new devices.

     In the winters of 1866 and 1867 bicycling was at the height of the Parisian fashion. Everyone who claimed to be anybody possessed a velocipede, from the Prince Imperial downward… The Prince Imperial was an excellent rider, and all the fashionable dandies vied with each other in graceful riding… Schools existed for the study of the art of riding. The riders were taught to sit erect in their saddles, and stooping forward was a thing unknown. At the Opera House straps were fixed to the walls of the vestibule for holding the machines of fashionable velocipedists; and Mr. Adams has counted a hundred velocipedes so left, while their owners enjoyed the music within. In the Bois de Boulogne little paths were laid among the trees for the riders. Tiny narrow bridges were erected over the lakes, across which the wheelmen rode on to the islands, and sometimes after refreshing themselves unwisely at the restaurants, toppled off into the shallow water in effecting their return. (From: Wheels and Wheeling, by Luther Porter, pp. 52-53, Wheelman Company, Boston 1892.)

    After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, British manufacturers took a greater role in advancing the development of the bicycle and the city of Coventry became the center of cycle innovation and manufacturing in England.

One panel from an 1860s stereoview. Rare image of a woman riding a velocipede. No location indicated.

Another early image of a woman with a velocipede.

 

   In America, cities such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia were the centers of velocipede interest, with riding schools giving lessons to neophytes, but the velocipede craze was short-lived. The machine’s design positioned the rider far enough behind the front wheel that pedaling was not that effective and was in fact quite awkward. The heavy weight of the machine made it virtually impossible to climb hills and they were almost impossible to ride on any but the hardest surfaces. For this, and for various other reasons, American enthusiasm for the velocipede waned, but in England innovation continued. 

A rare example of an early transitional bicycle from the velocipede to the high-wheel with an African American. Circa 1872 CDV.

References

Herlihy, David, 1994

“Who Invented the Bicycle – Lallement in 1863 or Michaud in 1861?”  In Proceedings of the 4th International Cycle History Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, October 13-15, 1993. Published by Bicycle Books, San Francisco, California.