Peddle power.

• Author: Baird, Stuart
• Position: Science & Technology - Essay

OUR INTENTION is to provide some insight into the way the bicycle has evolved from its primitive origins of the early 19th century to its current state. This article is limited to the technical side of the story only, although there are texts that address the social and cultural developments that are associated with cycling as an activity.

Two aspects were fundamental to the development of the modern bicycle: the ability to balance a single-track vehicle, i.e., with its two wheels in line; and a method of transferring power generated by the rider to a driven wheel.

The lust recognizable ancestor of the bicycle was developed in the early 1800s by Carl Friedrich Drais zu Sauerbronn, also known as Carl von Drais, who saw it as a substitute for the horse (which was in short supply at the time, due to a very harsh German winter), allowing travel over significant distances at more than twice the speed of walking. He named it "laufmaschine," or "running machine." In later years, it more often was referred to as "draisine" after its inventor, or "hobby horse."

The rider sat on a padded beam, balancing himself above and between two wheels behind each other, and propelled by pushing off alternating with the left and the right foot, while rolling along. The important principle was that a single-track vehicle could be balanced with the steerable front wheel: when the machine starts to lean one way or the other, the rider would turn the steering wheel, and the machine would right itself.

Even before Drais had created his machine, others had developed methods of driving wheeled vehicles by manpower. Most of these were four-wheeled carriages of some sort and, though some were quite elaborate, a few were more practical, such as the band-cranked three-wheeler--the ancestor of the wheel chair--made by the paraplegic German clocksmith Stephan Farrier for his own use.

Nearly two centuries have passed since the first bicycles emerged. Drais' machine, though protected by a patent, soon was copied in many places by different people. Some built them under license from Drais, others simply pirated the design, either for their own use or to sell to whomever was willing to buy them. Most notable amongst the former was the English coachmaker Denis Johnson, whose "pedestrian curricle" was available in several versions, including a ladies' model. However, interest soon diminished and, by 1830, they were all but forgotten relics of a short-lived craze.

Meanwhile, though, some handymen had been tinkering with the propulsion aspect, applied both to two-wheelers and, more typically, to three- and four-wheeled vehicles. In England, Louis Gompertz had devised a hand-operated ratchet-drive to one...