Matt Coleman, age 10, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., for his questions:
WHEN WAS THE BICYCLE INVENTED?
A bicycle is a vehicle that is made with two wheels fixed in tandem to a frame, steered by handlebars and propelled by an arrangement of pedals and gears that are driven by the feet. The name of the modern vehicle dates from 1869.
We aren't sure exactly when the bicycle was invented. Before 1869 a number of similar machines were being made. They were called velocipedes, from a French name dating from the late 18th Century.
Actually, crude two wheeled vehicles propelled by the feet were popular as early as the second half of the 17th Century. In 1690 a French invention called the delerifere featured a wooden beam to which the wheels were affixed. Riders sat on a cushion on the beam and propelled and steered the machine by pushing their feet against the ground. The vehicles had no handlebar.
A German nobleman designed the first two wheeled vehicle with a steering device in 1816. This machine, named the draisine after the inventor, had a handlebar that pivoted on the frame, enabling the front wheel to be turned.
Various improvements were later developed by French, German and British inventors.
Early models in England were generally known as hobby horses. One type, called a dandy horse, was lighter in weight than the draisine and had an adjustable saddle and elbow rest. It was patented in the United States in 1819 but aroused little interest.
The direct precursor of the modern bicycle was the French crank driven, loose pedaled velocipede, which became popular in France about 1855. The frame and wheels were made of wood. The tires were iron and the pedals were attached to the hub of the front, of the driver wheel. The driver wheel was slightly higher than the rear wheel. This machine was known as the boneshaker because of its effect on the rider pedalingover a cobble stoned street
In 1869 in England, solid rubber tires mounted on steel rims were introduced in a new machine, which was the first to be patented under the modern name bicycle.
In 1886 an English inventor named James Starley produced the first machine incorporating most of the features of the so called ordinary, or high wheel bicycle. The front wheel of Starley's machine was as much as three times as large in diameter as the rear wheel.
The modifications and improvements of the next 15 years included the ball bearing end the pneumatic tire. These inventions, along with the use of weldless steel tubing and spring seats, brought the ordinary bicycle to its highest point of development.
The excessive vibration of the high wheel bicycle, however, caused inventors to turn their attention to reducing the height of the bicycle. About 1880 the so called safety, or low, machine was developed. The wheels were of nearly equal size and the pedals, attached to a sprocket through gears and a chain, drove the rear wheel.