In Part I (page 101), we saw the bike go from a modified toy to a useful mode of transportation. But even with all of the improvements, by the middle of the 19th century, bikes were still thought of by most as curious—and dangerous—monstrosities. Here’s Part II.
The pedals on Kirkpatrick MacMillan’s improved “hobby horse” gave the rider a lot more control, but pedaling required brute strength. In 1862 a French carriage maker named Pierre Lallement improved on MacMillan’s design by switching the iron rods and pedals from the rear wheel to the front wheel (technology that’s still used in children’s tricycles). The result: the veloce. Now the rider could crank the wheel and create motion with much less effort. As Lallement rode his veloce through the streets of Paris, creating a stir among townsfolk, he knew had something special, so he moved to the land of opportunity: America.
Lallement arrived in Ansonia, Connecticut, in 1865. With little money to his name, he got a job in a carriage shop and in his spare time built what historians consider to be the first American bicycle.
He arranged to exhibit his new machine by staging a four-mile ride from Ansonia to the neighboring town of Derby and back. The first leg was mostly uphill, which was difficult. The ride back, however, was disastrous. At first, spectators were amazed to see Lallement speeding down the hill, but their excitement turned to horror when they realized he had no control over his machine—the veloce hit a rut, stopped, and the Frenchman went flying over the handlebars.
Undeterred, Lallement earned an American patent in 1866, but the rough New England roads and even rougher winters made the veloce a tough sell. So Lallement finally gave up and returned to France. When he got to Paris, what he saw amazed him: Parisians were riding around on veloces!
Stall tactic: John McEnroe once tied his shoelaces seven times during a match at Wimbledon.
Lallement’s former employer, carriage maker Pierre Michaux, had copied Lallement’s design and renamed it the velocipede (rough translation: “speed through feet”). With the help of his son, Ernest, Michaux built the first velocipede in 1863. In 1867 they displayed it at the Paris World’s Fair and it attracted so much attention that Michaux decided to dedicate all of his resources to producing them. Soon velocipedes—“boneshakers” as they were nicknamed because of their lack of suspension and adequate brakes—became popular all over Europe.
English mechanics came up with the next big innovation in bicycles—they increased the size of the front wheel. Because the pedals were attached directly to the axle, the larger the wheel, the farther a person could go with one rotation of the pedals. In some instances, the front wheel was four or five feet in diameter. At the same time, the rear wheel shrunk in size to give the bicycle better balance. The new machine became known as the “penny-farthing” because of the drastic disparity between the size of the front and rear wheels (it resembled two British coins, the penny and the farthing, placed next to each other). Now the rider had to carefully climb up the bike to get it going—not an easy task. But thankfully, penny-farthings were the first bikes with brakes.
The penny-farthing was introduced to America at the 1876 Philadelphia World’s Fair, and people loved it. To cash in on the public interest, a Boston architect named Frank W. Weston founded a company to import penny-farthings from England. They were a big hit, but because they cost well over $100 each ($1,670 in today’s dollars), they were only available to the rich. Aristocrats formed exclusive “riding clubs” in upscale neighborhoods with indoor tracks and private riding instructors. Middle-class people wanted to join in on the fun, but few could afford the expensive import.
Colonel Albert Pope, however, was about to change all that.
For Part III of the story, turn to page 366.
In some parts of India, girls get names with an odd number of syllables; boys get even.