Invention of bicycle

A bicycle is a truly great invention because it is part of the entire range of human existence, from frivolity to necessity. Three centuries ago French mathematician Jacques Ozanom spelled out the theoretical advantages of human powered carriage in which one can drive oneself wherever one pleases, without horses.

The bicycle was not created in one brilliant invention. Rather it arrived piecemeal, one idea at a time, until 1885, John Starkey added the final ideas and created a functional bicycle.

In 1804, an obscure American mechanic named J. Bolton patented a four-wheeled carriage designed to carry up to six idle passengers who sat comfortably on three upholding benches. In addition, toe men operated the vehicle. One sat in front and steered the smaller front wheel, each about two feet in diameter.

Macmillan’s bicycle the first to use pedals

The first bicycle was built in 1817. Baron Karl Drais Von Sauerbrun of Germany called his invention the draisine. The draisine was made of wood. It was pushed forward by the rider’s feet. The baron’s bicycle did not catch on in France, but it became popular as a plaything in England during the 1820s and 1830s.

The term ‘bicycle’ was not introduced until the 1860s, when it was coined in France to describe a new kind of two-wheeler with a mechanical drive. Ever since then, ‘bicycle’ has been used in French and English to designate a two-wheeler with pedals.

In 1839, a Scottish blacksmith named Kirkpatrick Macmillan made the first bicycle pedals. He attached pedals to swinging cranks above the bicycles front wheel. The swinging cranks were linked to rods that drove the back wheel. His bike also the first to have a brake, but this did not prevent the Glasgow police court from fining him for ‘furious driving’ when his bicycle struck a child in 1842.

The safety bicycle did not become popular until the advent in 1885 of the first recognizable modern bicycle, the Rover designed by John Starley of Coventry. In 1888 the Scottish veterinarian Dr John Dunlop’s invented the pneumatic tyre specially made for bicycle.
Invention of bicycle