|
History
The bicycle took the world by storm when it was first developed in the
19th century. The idea for it came from a two-wheel hobby-horse, when Scotsman
Kirkpatrick Macmillan applied the dandy-horse principle to a model with
pedals. The first true bicycles, with cranks on the front wheels,
went into production in Paris in 1865. They were called 'velocipedes' or
'boneshakers' (for obvious reasons), but their popularity grew. To make
them more efficient, the front wheels were gradually made larger, resulting
in the 20-year vogue of the ordinary (or pennyfarthing) bicycle. This was
superseded by the safety bicycle, with a chain and sprocket drive similar
to modern bikes; this went into production in 1885. Pneumatic rubber tires
(1889) and variable gears (1899) were additional refinements. |
Bicycling
