The
Bicycle
By conservative estimates, over a billion bicycles
exist in the world today. Bicycles are still the principal mode of transportation
in many countries, including China. As
vehicles go, they consume no fossil fuels and are aerobically healthy, not to mention easy to park.
Surprisingly, even though a student of
Leonardo daVinci reputedly sketched out all the parts of a bicycle around 1490,
it wasn't until 1818 that a German baron named Karl von Drais came up with a
wooden vehicle with two wheels, a seat and handle bars. Unfortunately, the
Draisienne, or "hobby horse," had no pedals; the
rider alternately walked and glided himself forward.
In 1839, a Scottish blacksmith invented a self-propelled
bicycle-but it weighed 56 pounds and never caught on. In 1863, a Frenchman came
up with a wooden bicycle with pedals that cranked only the front wheels
forward. Although officially named the Velocipede (fast foot), many called it
the "bone shaker"-a clue to how it rode.
In 1870, an Englishman rolled out a bike with a large front wheel
and smaller back wheel that covered greater distances with less pedaling, but
most riders kept falling off. In the 1880s, two Englishmen introduced
successive inventions-the chain drive and a rear crank axle-followed by an
Irish veterinarian named John Boyd Dunlop who developed air-filled rubber tires
for a more comfortable ride. Finally, an
affordable bicycle that appealed to the masses was born.
As fate would have it, the bicycle's success in the marketplace was impeded by the first production of
gasoline-powered automobiles in the 1890s. (Even the Wright brothers, who sold
and repaired bicycles for a living, opted to concentrate on building an airplane.)
Still, bicycle innovations soldiered forward. The 1940s saw the introduction of built-in kickstands so
bicycles could be parked upright. In the 1960s, 10-speed gear shifts became commonplace, and in the 1970s, mountain bikes made their debut. When it
comes to improvements in bicycles, progress is slow but steady. Who knows what this century will bring?
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