Читать книгу The Modern Bicycle and Its Accessories - Julius Wilcox - Страница 11

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The early history of bicycle development has been told even to weariness, perhaps because not always well told. We shall not go over the course again, and yet it may not be amiss to show briefly and connectedly how the wheel of today grew out of the three preceding ones, especially since this strikingly illustrates the reversion process just explained.

The earliest vehicle for making oneself horse as well as rider was a three-wheeler, and was known at least, as early as 1779; the two-wheeler began in 1816, as far as records show, with the Draisine, a front-steerer, which was all ready to develop into either a front-driver or a rear-driver, according to the method of attaching the cranks, which so long remained the missing link. Of course it quickly went out, and after nearly a half century of oblivion it was dragged down from the garret and the cranks were added—to the front wheel, as that was then the easier way. The revival is generally credited to France and to Pierre Lallement, although Michaux, for whom he had been working in Paris, is probably more entitled to the credit than he; the name of the man really the first to take the new step, however, is hopelessly lost in obscurity. Lallement did ride the thing in Paris, and did afterward make one in Connecticut. The patent on “oppositely projecting cranks” issued to him in 1866 became the most valuable one on which suits were afterward fought and royalties were collected, yet Lallement invented nothing, and it is worth putting on record here that Mr. Wilcox saw the velocipede of that day publicly ridden in Brooklyn nearly two years before the issue of that patent, and more than a year before Lallement came to this country.

A few years of decline as a curiosity and the “boneshaker” had gone into forgetfulness after the Draisine. Aside from its intolerable weight and its crude and clumsy construction, what killed it was its lack of speed, for it was “geared level,” that is, not geared at all. England, however, did not give up the subject, but kept pegging away at it. To get a longer run for each foot-stroke, a larger wheel was necessary; so the rider was gradually brought “over his work,” and the front wheel became as large as he could reach, on a “close built” construction; necessarily the back wheel shrunk to a smaller size, ranging from 16 to 18 inches, or else the thing could have been neither mounted nor managed. Wood had given place to metal; the tubular steel frame, the suspension wheel with wire spokes, the steel rim and the solid rubber tire came in nearly together, and so, as the third great step, was evolved the high wheel, or the “good old ordinary,” still held more or less affectionately in the memory of all who ever rode it. A specimen or two appeared in the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. In the following year the new type commenced to go in this country, beginning thus the bicycle era, and it made its pioneer way without any rival until 1881. In 1880, however, McKee & Harrington of this city, one of the pioneer makers, received a diploma and a bronze medal for “a steel bicycle” exhibited at the fair of the American Institute. But the faults of the new construction were as positive as its virtues. It was heavy, averaging twice the weight of the bicycle of today; the size which fitted depended on the rider’s length of leg, not at all on his strength or his preference; worst of all, it was an acrobatic and unsafe thing, and was not a practical vehicle, although those who then sold and used it tried to make it out so.

Under the demand for safety, invention went back to the “boneshaker,” and put on the cranks and sprockets which could have been put on earlier, producing in a clumsy form the now universal geared rear driver. An earlier specimen under the name of “Bicyclette” appeared as far back as 1879, but the “Rover” (nearly identical with that) succeeded in giving its name to the type. Yet this name failed to survive, because the type drove out every other, and no specific name was required to distinguish it. To the great majority of present riders, this is “the bicycle,” the only one they ever knew; before it had driven out all others it was spoken of as “the safety,” and yet there were many other forms of safety bicycles, of which one antedated the rear driver in this country by some six years, and two originated here.

All this was reversion to type. The Draisine went out of existence, then received cranks on its front wheel and revived as the “boneshaker,” or velocipede. That went out as quickly in its turn, and gradually grew into the ordinary. Then reappeared the Draisine, with cranks in the other places, and drove out the high wheel after a hard contest. Will any such complete reversion occur again? It does not seem likely; yet when we remember the long and persistent battle of the types, and the number of forms which have been tried, it would be unwarranted to pronounce this impossible; the front driver still survives, although little is heard of it, and if it should possess the field once more that would be no more remarkable than the changes which have already occurred.