Velocipedes, Bicycles and Tricycles: How to Make and Use Them
Contents
- Argues that the velocipede's history reflects humanity's long drive to harness wheels for personal locomotion, from the go-cart to the modern bicycle.
- Describes Blanchard and Masurier's early carriage-velocipede and M. Richard's canopy-equipped machine, tracing the first steps toward practical human-powered vehicles.
- Covers Von Drais's 1818 patent for the two-wheeled hobby-horse and its English introduction by Denis Johnson, explaining the running-seat principle and its limitations.
- Describes Lewis Gompertz's 1821 hand-and-foot-driven velocipede with its toothed-rack mechanism, praising its ingenuity while noting its over-reliance on gearing.
- Reviews the 1860s American bicycle patents and the growing variety of tricycle designs that brought crank-driven direct action to popular velocipedism.
- Surveys tricycle designs including the German tricycle and Elyria velocipede, explaining how varying rear-axle width bridges the gap between bicycle and tricycle.
- Step-by-step instruction for the beginner: walking the machine, finding balance on a slope, steering by handle, and progressing to solo riding.
- Argues that the high price of shop-bought velocipedes puts them beyond many people, and explains how an amateur can build a bicycle cheaply, covering suitable materials (iron, steel or brass rather than failure-prone cast iron) and the division of labour used in the large American manufactories.
- Surveys the many curious variants and improvement schemes proposed for velocipedes, from a fanciful six- or seven-wheeled family machine to wind-driven 'sailing' velocipedes and the marine podoscaphe paddled on the Bois de Boulogne lake, and weighs the prospect of applying steam power.
- Traces the velocipede's origins to France as its 'cradle' and charts its rapid rise in popularity, citing distance and speed feats (123 miles in twenty-four hours, mile-in-five-minute racing) and the growing list of practical users such as rural postmen, telegraph messengers, doctors and parsons.