Literally, the first model to be called a bicycle (“two wheels”) appeared in 1870. It was all metal, had pedals on the huge front wheel and cost the equivalent of six months of wages for a worker. average. But it was not an invention, something that appeared overnight, but the result of an evolution that began in a toy created in France 80 years earlier. It was a small wooden horse with a fixed front wheel, which could not be turned sideways. A small problem solved when the German Baron Karl von Drais developed the “walking machine” in 1817. The wheel turned, but the pedals had not yet been conceived: you had to walk with your feet on the ground to propel the vehicle, in the best style Fred Flinstone.
It was the Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan, in 1839, who first appeared with the pedals glued to the huge front wheel – it was believed that the bigger it was, the faster the contraption would go. The trend for equal-sized wheels, as well as the chain and ratchet system, emerged in an English design in the 1880s. Gearing mechanisms that allow greater speeds to be reached without great effort were invented in the following decade.
balanced evolution
2. big wheel, ditto tumble
In 1870, the first two-wheeled vehicle to be called a bicycle was created. It was completely made of metal (before that, metallurgy had not yet advanced enough to produce metal parts that were both light and strong), it had the novelty of solid rubber tires, but the pedals remained stubbornly attached to the front wheel. The big problem – but really big – was the front wheel, which left the driver above the center of gravity. All it took was a stone on the road for the poor guy to flip over, head first, with his legs wedged under the handlebars.
3. Testing the car
The clothes that women wore in the 19th century weren’t exactly appropriate for riding a bicycle. In 1869, an Italian watchmaker, Raimondo Vallani, came up with a solution: the tricycle, which, in addition to a providential third wheel, had a lowered central bar to help women position their legs. Other tricycle innovations, such as the wheel brakes and the transmission system, were later used by the automobile industry.
4. A camera in hand
In 1888, Irishman John Boyd Dunlop fitted tube tires to his son’s tricycle. His concern was only about comfort, but the resource also brought improvements to the stability of the vehicle. This spurred the bicycle industry and, shortly thereafter, the automobile industry. “Cycling has done more for women’s emancipation than anything else in the world,” said American activist Susan Anthony at the end of the 19th century.
Read too:
– What are the traffic rules for cyclists?
– Is it true that we never forget how to ride a bicycle?