The Velocipedist, Vol 1, No 1
Articles in this issue
- The opening salutatory announces that The Velocipedist will record everything of interest in the velocipede world, judge rival manufacturers' machines impartially, report races, and solicit correspondence from across the country. It then traces the machine's history from Baron Drais de Saverbrun's Draisienne and the celerifere through Blanchard & Mesurier's eagle-headed vehicle and M. Dreuze's postmen's machines, to Lallement's treadle improvement sold to Michaux & Co. of Paris and the tubular-framed American machine with its oil-box axle and ball-of-foot stirrup.
- A humorous leader arguing the two-wheeled velocipede will supersede crowded cars, costly hacks and horses, comparing it favorably to mythic steeds and calling for a monument to the inventor of the bicycle.
- Argues America lags France in adopting the velocipede, describing how Parisians of every class ride them and the night and Sunday-race scenes at St. Cloud, Vincennes and the Champs Elysees, and notes several velocipede schools opening in New York.
- Run-in notices on the new New York riding-schools: Frederick Hanlon's acrobatic feats at the hall on 10th Street and Broadway, the Pearsall Brothers' fashionable school at Twenty-second Street, Barber's on Broadway at 47th Street, and Burnham's in Brooklyn.
- A leader on the velocipede's introduction into the theatre, with squibs on its appearance at the Crosby Opera House, the Tammany, the Grand Opera, the French Theatre, Niblo's, the Academy of Music, the Olympic and other New York amusement houses, continuing into Bryant's Minstrels and Tony Pastor's.
- Describes festive village velocipede races near Paris and records times and distances at Enghien, St. Cloud and Vincennes, with pool-selling stakes recorded for entries named Louis Desmoines, Jean Bartols, Joseph Roque, Brabant, Fishe and Laurent, and a heat-race summary from the St. Cloud course of December 1, 1868.
- A correspondent's letter from Bordeaux, signed Henri Melancort, reporting a ladies' speed race at the Park Bordelais on November 1, 1868, won by Mlle. Julie over Mlle. Louise.
- A signed Staten Island essay argues velocipeding gives superior general bodily development, citing Dr. James E. Learning on chest and lung development and praising the American machine's ball-of-foot stirrup over the French shank stirrup, and jokingly recommends the 'veloce' to the Metropolitan Board of Health as a tonic for dyspepsia and melancholia. It also extracts Henry Ward Beecher's lecture at Plymouth Church on the evening of the 27th, in which he discussed wholesome amusements and predicted the coming man would arrive on a velocipede, adding that he had bought two for his own boys.
- Reports that Calvin Witty, claiming to own Pierre Lallement's patent No. 59,915 of November 20, 1866, has notified makers to cease infringing, prompting some Newark and New York firms to suspend while Pickering & Davis arrange to continue under the patent if sustained.