St Nicholas [serial] . locipede in publicwere the Hanlon brothers. They used a some-what clumsy type of wheel from France. These,at best, were but heavy things, which were soonimproved upon by American makers. Schools for teaching learners to ride werequickly opened; and that of Frank Pearsall, thewell-known New York photographer, was per-haps the first of these. His school was on thecorner of Broadway and Twenty-second with his brother, he turned out up-ward of three hundred well-taught riders withintwo months. Three months later nearly fiftybicycle-schools thrived in New York
St Nicholas [serial] . locipede in publicwere the Hanlon brothers. They used a some-what clumsy type of wheel from France. These,at best, were but heavy things, which were soonimproved upon by American makers. Schools for teaching learners to ride werequickly opened; and that of Frank Pearsall, thewell-known New York photographer, was per-haps the first of these. His school was on thecorner of Broadway and Twenty-second with his brother, he turned out up-ward of three hundred well-taught riders withintwo months. Three months later nearly fiftybicycle-schools thrived in New York andBrooklyn. These schools vied one with the other in high-sounding was the Amphicyclo-theatrus, an-other theGym-nocyclidium,etc. The costof tuition wasfifteen dollarseach; but thisamount carriedwith it the rightto use a veloci-pede and topractice in thehall for onemonth. In England makers vied with one another in im-proving the velocipede. One increased the sizeof the front or driving wheel; another reduced. THE KANGAROO.(From Le Cyclisme.) that of the rear wheel; a third adopted solid wirespokes; while a fourth fitted rubber tires to thewheel-rims; a fifth invented a hollow steel rim,a sixth hollow spokes, until at last the old ma-chine had undergone a complete transforma-tion, and the bicycle proper, or ordinary, asit is now called, was evolved. With the opening of the Franco-Prussianwar in 1870, the manufacture of velocipedes inFrance came to a standstill, while across theChannel,colonieswhere theindustrywas laterto find alodgmentwere nowspringingup. At thehistoricold city ofCoventry,then thecentralpoint forall thesilk andribbontrades,and wherethe clock-in a k e r s had settled long before, wheeldom took upits quarters. Among the better-known bicycle-makersJames K. Starley, Thomas Humber, and New-ton Wilson may be named. To J. K. Starleybelongs the credit of making the first first of these machines, which he built in1873, was of great height when comp
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidstnicholasserial251dodg
