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Introduction and History of the Bicycle
The most reliable claim to the earliest use of the bicycle belongs to Germany in an 1818 patent of the ‘velocipede’. It became the first commercially successful two-wheeled, human powered and steerable machine and was constructed almost entirely from wood! It was not long after that the idea was developed by a number of British entrepreneurs and rapidly developed into a fashion craze of London’s high society in 1819. The craze soon died down to be surpassed by many multi wheeled inventions and it was not until the 1860’s that the first commercially successful design appeared. The ‘Boneshaker’ was a French design which used rotary cranks and pedals attached to the front wheel which gave ease of speed but some difficulty in steering. The 1870’s saw the development of the well known penny-farthing so named due to the different sizes of the large front wheel and small back wheel. The development of the safety bicycle in 1879 finally gave the cycle a more positive reputation rather than the faddish, uncomfortable and dangerous predecessors and is the basis on which today’s bicycles are based. |
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The bicycle, ‘bike’ or ‘cycle’ is a form of transportation powered by an individual that is now the world’s most popular form of transportation. The bicycle has been used since the early 19th century though there are claims that this two wheeled machine had been a concept as early as 1493 from the famous inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci.