Wheels and wheeling; an indispensable handbook for cyclists, with over two hundred illustrations . ders without extraneous aid, but these carriages canhardly be regarded as predecessors of the are interesting, however, as showing that for aconsiderable period it has been thought that mancould, by means of some mechanical contrivance, pro-pel himself quite as well as he could be drawn orcarried by other forces or objects. Curiously enough,as it would seem, but commonly enough as experienceproves, his first efforts to attain the desired end weremost laborious, and the results were com
Wheels and wheeling; an indispensable handbook for cyclists, with over two hundred illustrations . ders without extraneous aid, but these carriages canhardly be regarded as predecessors of the are interesting, however, as showing that for aconsiderable period it has been thought that mancould, by means of some mechanical contrivance, pro-pel himself quite as well as he could be drawn orcarried by other forces or objects. Curiously enough,as it would seem, but commonly enough as experienceproves, his first efforts to attain the desired end weremost laborious, and the results were complicated andcumbrous vehicles. An example of an early specimenwill be found near the beginning of the chapter on theTricycle. 38 WHEELS AND WHEELING, Other attempts of this sort seem to have been made,but it is not important to trace them here. According to some authorities two distinct but verysimilar vehicles, the Celeripede and the Draisine, wereproduced almost simultaneously in 1816. The formeris said to have appeared in the Luxembourg Gardensin that year, guided by a rider who managed his. Celeripede—1816. machine with great skill and showed startling was composed of two wheels in line, connected bya perch, on which the rider partly sat, propelling it bythrusting with his feet upon the ground and guiding itby means of a vertical bar connected with the steer-ing steel. The Draisine was the affair said to have beenused by one Baron von Drais, while performing hisduties as master of forests for the Grand Duke of HISTORY OF THE BICYCLE. 39 Baden. It was likewise exhibited in 1816, and apatent obtained for it in France. Its frame appearsto have been a little more elaborate than that of theCeleripede, and a rest for the arms seems to have beenused. The rider, as with the other, carried part ofhis weight upon the perch, and propelled it by strid-ing rapidly along the ground, while on down gradeshe raised his feet and let it run. The forks of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidwheelswheeli, bookyear1892
