In today’s generation, there are many trends that people would love to do it, hiking/trekking on the mountains, travelling somewhere and many more. But due to the pandemic, we cannot do this anymore because of having safety protocols. For us, it stopped the world for a while. Though the world stopped, the people are finding ways to still exercise through walking, jogging and especially biking. Yes! Biking is the highest trending because we can still travel to other places. Today, I will give you the definition of bicycle and its history.
Did you know that “Bicycle” also called bike is a two-wheeled steerable machine that is used by pedalled by the biker’s feet. Its standard wheels are mounted in-line in a metal frame with a front wheel held in a rotatable fork. Bikers should sit on a saddle and steers to move the bike. Our feet should turn pedals attached to cranks and chain wheel. The power is transmitted by a loop of chain connected to the chain wheel to the rear wheel. Riding it is easily mastered because bikes can be ridden with just a little effort at a distance of 16-24 kilometres which is 10-15 miles per hour and about 4 to 5 times the pace of walking. It is efficient yet devised to convert a human energy into mobility. People used it for transportation whether going to work or going to school, for recreational, and it is a popular sport which is cycling. Most of the people are using it to move goods in every area that a car can’t do into and also for the people who doesn’t have cars. In general, there are twice as many as bicycles than automobiles. They can sold three bikes than a car that is only one per day. The countries who promote bicycle for shopping and commuting are Netherlands, Denmark and Japan. In the US, they really constructed bike paths to those bikers so that they can save energy, to avoid accident and it is alternative to automobiles.
Many historians disagree about the invention of the bicycle. Many dates are change, most likely, no one qualifies as the inventor of the bicycle and how the evolution through the efforts of many. Though Leonardo da Vinci was credited to be the inventor with such having sketched of a bicycle in 1942 in his Codex Atlanticus, its drawing was discovered to be a counterfeit added in the 1960’s. There was another presumed bicycle ancestor, vélocifère, or célérifère. It was the 1970’s fast horse-drawn coach which considers being the predecessor of the bicycle. Another two-wheeled rider-propelled machine for which there is undisputed evidence was the draisienne invented by Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrum of Germany. In 1817, he rode it for 14 kilometres or 9 miles and the following year, he exhibited it in Paris. He called his device as the Laufmaschine or “running machine” and it became popular through the years. At first, it was made of wood, the seated rider propelled himself by paddling by feet against the ground, its balance board supported the rider’s arms. The granted patent copies were granted to von Drais and soon being produced to the other countries (including Great Britain, Austria, Italy and United States). Later in 1818, draisienne was purchased by Denis Johnson of London. He patented it and improvised the model as the “pedestrian curricle.” And the following year, he produced more than 300 and they became famous as the hobby-horses. As expected, it was very expensive and mostly of the buyers were members of the nobility. Well-known caricaturist in that year called it “dandy horses” and the riders sometimes booed in public. Its design was to raise health concerns and riding proved impossible except on the smooth roads. Suddenly, it lasted for six months only because draisienne-hobby-horse fad didn’t lead to sustained development of two-wheeled vehicles but von Drais and Johnson established could remain balanced while in motion.
There is also evidence that a small number of two-wheeled machines with a rear treadle drives were built in Southwestern Scotland during in the early 1840’s. Kirkpatrick Macmillan which was a blacksmith of Dumfriesshire that time. He is most often associated with these, said to be that he travelled 40 miles which 64 kilometres to Glasgow in 1842, Though the documentation is problematic. Gavin Dalzell of Lesmahagow probably built a similar two-wheeled machine in the mid-1840’s and said to have operated it for many years. The heavily restored machine in Glasgow Museum of Transport, it consists of wooden wheels and iron rims. A rider’s feet swung treadles back and forth and the moving pair of rods was connected to cranks on the rear wheels. A Scotsman named Thomas McCall also built similar machines in the late 1860’s. The documents indicate the late Alexandre Lefèbvre of Saint-Denis, France, built a two-wheeled velocipede powered by a treadles connected to cranks in the rear wheeled in the year 1842.
Did you know that the word bicycle came into use in the year 1868 to replace the old name vélocipède de pedale. It is the first velocipede that is powered by pedals mounted on the front wheel and was built in Paris on early 1860’s but still there is no concluding comments or evidence that proves who really conceive the idea on applying pedals in the front (or anyone did so). A French mechanic, Pierre Lallament has evidence that He built and demonstrated such machine on the mid-1863 in Paris. That time also he was working with his boss named M. Strohmayer which is Parisian maker of carriages for the children and disabled persons. Mr. Lallement took some parts to build an improved velocipede and he went to US in 1865 and he completed his new “veloce”. The patent was issued in 1866 in the United States of America. In the early 1870, just as boneshaker was already developing into a bicycle called “The Ordinary,” Franco German War sets back the French Industry. The manufactured bicycle survived, but most of the developments took place in Britain.
You already knew already the history of a bicycle. I hope you learned about it. It is really important to know that a bicycle must be well-taken care of so that it would not be broken easily , each part must be checked from to time and well-cleaned of course.
