A short overview of bicycles

There were earlier oddities, but cycling really began in the 1840s and 1850s with the Aellopodes, which are now almost forgotten, but which apparently had a reputation in British cities back then. Here is how the device was written up in the Mechanics’ Magazine, volume 31, 1839:

The Aellopodes. A curious specimen of mechanical ingenuity bearing the above title is at present exhibited at Lowther Rooms, Strand. It is a carriage for travelling without horse or steam, propelled solely by the traveller’s own weight; and it is the invention of Mr. Nevis, a native of Cambridge. Its structure is light and elegant; and any persons may, on common roads, propel themselves at the rate of between twenty and thirty miles an hour, and on railroads it might be worked with incredible velocity. The chief object of its inventor is, that it might be employed to take up the cross mails, whereby he calculates that a very large saving would be effected by the post office.
—Mechanics’ Magazine, volume 31, 1839, p. 16

There are no pictures of this device available, though the sparse literature suggests that the “Mr. Nevis” mentioned in the piece was actually Thomas Revis. The Aellopodes was 12 feet long, and the rear wheels were six feet high, with propulsion being effected, “not by the user’s weight in the usual sense, but by stepping on treadles”.

Some of the devices, though, were rather more alarming to the rider. What could be more daunting, for example, than a unicycle like the one above? Scientific American, perhaps more than usually tongue-in-cheek, questioned criticism of this design in another journal, suggesting that it would be no harder to ride than it would be “to sit in a chair balanced upon two legs, resting upon the rather uncertain substratum of a slack rope”.

Having once seen a nude unicyclist leading a crowd of mainly equally unclad bicyclists on a chilly north British evening in Manchester (no, I don’t wish to explain further), I would not be prepared to attempt to pontificate on what people can or can’t do on one-wheel vehicles. I simply wouldn’t be persuaded to get up on one of those, myself!

I might, on the other hand, be more tempted to risk my nose, chin and other extremities in the device above, given that the feet are not engaged in pedalling, but the apparent lack of any brakes or any steering (aside from that achieved by leaning out to one side or the other) would give me some pause.

Meanwhile, other minds were concerning themselves with other amusing variations, like the ice velocipede and the water velocipede below. At this stage, there were no public attempts to develop a pedal-powered flying machine, but there must surely have been a few, somewhere, quietly out of sight. Most of the smart money was being invested in steam power.

And now I am prepared to discuss the Australian case, beginning in early 2019.