10/02/14 20:38:19
The early bicycle hardly seemed safe even for one person, much less for two.
It had a very large front wheel and a very small back one.
Both wheels were very narrow and had solid tires.
The pedals were fixed directly to the front wheel.
The seat was nearly five feet high.
It is not hard for us to understand why the bicycle was called a "bone shaker," and why riding one was looked upon as a dangerous sport to which only fearless young men were attracted.
Who would have dreamed, when the bicycle was invented,
that by 1895 American manufacturers would be producing nearly half a million bicycles a year and selling them for one hundred dollars or more each ― and this is at a time when the dollar was worth more than it is today?
What brought about the change was the invention of the air-filled rubber tire by an Irishman named John Boyd Dunlop.
When he got a patent for his invention, he did not know that the idea had been tried before, but had failed because no use had been found for the tire.
It was the bicycle that offered a use.
In addition to the improvement of tires, other ways to make cycling safe were invented.
First the wheels were made the same size and the seat was lowered.
Then inventors made it easier to turn the pedals.
The outcome of all this was a bicycle produced in 1890.
For more than a hundred years, the basic design of this bicycle has not been changed.
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