Chapter 14

(L. J. S.)

CYANOGEN(Gr.κύανος, blueγεννᾶν, to produce), C2N2, in chemistry, a gas composed of carbon and nitrogen. The name was suggested by Prussian blue, the earliest known compound of cyanogen. It was first isolated in 1815 by J. Gay-Lussac, who obtained it by heating mercury or silver cyanide; this discovery is of considerable historical importance, since it recorded the isolation of a “compound radical.” It may also be prepared by heating ammonium oxalate; by passing induction sparks between carbon points in an atmosphere of nitrogen (see H. von Wartenburg,Abs. J.C.S., 1907, i. p. 299), or by the addition of a concentrated solution of potassium cyanide to one of copper sulphate, the mixed solutions being then heated. It also occurs in blast-furnace gases. When cyanogen is prepared by heating mercuric cyanide, a residue known as para-cyanogen, (CN)x, is left; this is to be regarded as a polymer of cyanogen. It is a brownish amorphous solid, which is insoluble in water. Cyanogen is a colourless gas, possessing a peculiar characteristic smell, and is very poisonous. It burns with a purple flame, forming carbon dioxide and nitrogen; and may be condensed (by cooling to −25° C.) to a colourless liquid, and further to a solid, which melts at −34.4° C. (M. Faraday,Ann., 1845, 56, p. 158). It dissolves readily in water and the aqueous solution decomposes on standing; a dark-brown flocculent precipitate of azulmic acid, C4H5N5O, separating whilst ammonium oxalate, urea and hydrocyanic acid are found in the solution. In many respects it resembles chlorine in its chemical behaviour, a circumstance noted by Gay-Lussac; it combines directly with hydrogen (at 500° to 550° C.) to form hydrocyanic acid, and with chlorine, bromine, iodine and sulphur, to form cyanogen chloride, &c.; it also combines directly with zinc, cadmium and iron to form cyanides of these metals. It combines with sulphuretted hydrogen, in the presence of water, to form the compound C2N2·H2S, and in the presence of alcohol, to form the compound C2N2·2H2S. Concentrated hydrochloric acid converts it into oxamide. Potash solution converts it into a mixture of potassium cyanide and cyanate. When heated with hydriodic acid (specific gravity 1.96) it forms amino-acetic acid, and with tin and hydrochloric acid it yields ethylene diamine.

CYAXARES(Pers.Uvakhshatra), king of Media, reigned according to Herodotus (i. 107) forty years, about 624-584B.C.That he was the real founder of the Median empire is proved by the fact that in Darius’s time a Median usurper, Fravartish, pretended to be his offspring (Behistun inscr. 2. 43); but about his history we know very little. Herodotus narrates (i. 103 ff.) that he renewed the war against the Assyrians, in which his father Phraortes had perished, but was, while he besieged Nineveh, attacked by a great Scythian army under Madyas, son of Protothyes, which had come from the northern shores of the Black Sea in pursuit of the Cimmerians. After their victory over Cyaxares, the Scythians conquered and wasted the whole of western Asia, and ruled twenty-eight years, till at last they were made drunk and slain by Cyaxares at a banquet (cf. another story about Cyaxares and a Scythian host in Herod, i. 73). As we possess scarcely any contemporary documents it is impossible to find out the real facts. But we know from the prophecies of Jeremiah and Zephaniah that Syria and Palestine were really invaded by northern barbarians in 626B.C., and it is probable that this invasion was the principal cause of the downfall of the Assyrian empire (seeMediaandPersia:Ancient History).

After the destruction of the Scythians Cyaxares regained the supremacy, renewed his attack on Assyria, and in 606B.C.destroyed Nineveh and the other capitals of the empire (Herod. i. 106; Berossusap.Euseb.Chron.i. 29, 37, confirmed by a stele of Nabonidus found in Babylon: Scheil inRecueil detravaux, xviii.; Messerschmidt, “Die Inschrift der Stele Nabonaids,” inMitteilungen der vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft, i., 1896). According to Berossus he was allied with Nabopolassar of Babylon, whose son Nebuchadrezzar married Amyitis, the daughter of the Median king (who is wrongly called Astyages). The countries north and east of the Tigris and the northern part of Mesopotamia with the city of Harran (Carrhae) became subject to the Medes. Armenia and Cappadocia were likewise subdued; the attempt to advance farther into Asia Minor led to a war with Alyattes of Lydia. The decisive battle, in the sixth year, was interrupted by the famous solar eclipse on the 28th of May 585 predicted by Thales. Syennesis of Cilicia and Nebuchadrezzar (in Herodotus named Labynetus) of Babylon interceded and effected a peace, by which the Halys was fixed as frontier between the two empires, and Alyattes’s daughter married to Cyaxares’s son Astyages (Herod. i. 74). If Herodotus’s dates are correct, Cyaxares died shortly afterwards.

In a fragmentary letter from an Assyrian governor to King Sargon (about 715B.C.) about rebellions of Median chieftains, a dynast Uvakshatar (i.e.Cyaxares) is mentioned as attacking an Assyrian fortress (Kharkhar, in the chains of the Zagros). Possibly he was an ancestor of the Median king.

(Ed. M.)

CYBELE,orCybebe(Gr.Κυβέλη,Κυβήβη), a goddess native to Asia Minor and worshipped by most of the peoples of the peninsula, was known to the Romans most commonly as theGreat Mother or the Gods(q.v.), or the Great Idaean Mother of the Gods—Magna Deum Mater, Mater Deum Magna Idaea. She was known by many other names, such asMater Idaea, Dindymene, Sipylene, derived from famous seats of worship, and Mountain Mother, &c., in token of her character, but Cybele is the name by which she is most frequently known in literature. Her cult became centralized in Phrygia, had found its way into Greece, where it never flourished greatly, as early as the latter 6th centuryB.C., and was introduced at Rome in 204B.C.Under the Empire it attained to great importance, and was one of the last pagan cults to die. Cybele was usually worshipped in connexion with Attis (q.v.), as Aphrodite with Adonis, the two being a duality interpreted by the philosophers as symbolic of Mother Earth and her vegetation.

(G. Sn.)

CYCLADES,a compact group of islands in the Greek Archipelago, forming a cluster around the island of Syra (Syros), the principal town of which, now officially known as Hermoupolis, is the capital of a department. Population of the group (1907) 130,378. The islands, though seldom visited by foreigners, are for the most part highly interesting and picturesque, notwithstanding their somewhat barren appearance when viewed from the sea; many of them bear traces of the feudal rule of Venetian families in the middle ages, and their inhabitants in general may be regarded as presenting the best type of the Greek race. To the student of antiquity the most interesting are: Delos (q.v.), one of the greatest centres of ancient religious, political and commercial life, where an important series of researches has been carried out by French archaeologists; Melos (q.v.), where, in addition to various buildings of the Hellenic and Roman periods, the large prehistoric stronghold of Phylakopi has been excavated by members of the British school at Athens; and Thera (seeSantorin), the ancient capital of which has been explored by Baron Hiller von Gaertringen. Thera is also of special interest to geologists owing to its remarkable volcanic phenomena. Naxos, the largest and most fertile island of the group, contains the highest mountain in the Cyclades (Zia, 3290 ft.); the island annually exports upwards of 2000 tons of emery, a state monopoly the proceeds of which are now hypothecated to the foreign debt. The oak woods of Ceos (Zeá) and Ios furnish considerable supplies of valonia. Kimolos, which is absolutely treeless, produces fuller’s-earth. The famous marble quarries of Paros have been practically abandoned in modern times; the marble of Tenos is now worked by a British syndicate. The mineral wealth of the Cyclades has hitherto been much neglected; iron ore is exported from Seriphos, manganese and sulphur from Melos, and volcanic cement (pozzolana) from Santorin. Other articles of export are wine, brandy, hides and tobacco. Cythnos, Melos and other islands possess hot springs with therapeutic qualities. The prosperity of Syra, formerly an important distributing centre for the whole Levant, has been declining for several years.

Population (1907):—Syra 31,939 (communes, Hermoupolis 18,132, Mykonos 4589, Syra 9218); Andros 18,035 (Andros 8536, Arni 2166, Gaurio 2897, Corthion 4436); Thera 19,597 (Thera 4226, Egiale 1513, Amorgos 2627, Anaphe 579, Emporium 2172, Therasia 679, Ios 2090, Kalliste 3519, Oea 2192); Ceos 11,032 (Ceos 3817, Dryopis 1628, Cythnos 1563, Seriphos 4024); Melos, 12,774 (Melos 4864, Adamas 529, Siphnos 3777, Kimolos 2015, Pholegandros 962, Sikinos 627); Naxos 25,185 (Naxos 2064, Apiranthe 2421, Vivlos 4343, Coronis 3205, Marpessa 1313, Naoussa 1670, Paros 3586, Tragea 4661, Hyrie 1922); Tenos 11,816 (Tenos 4697, Panorme 2658, Peree 2801, Sosthenion 1660).

CYCLAMEN,in botany, a genus belonging to the natural order Primulaceae, containing about ten species native in the mountains of central Europe and the Mediterranean region.C. europaeum(Sow-bread) is found as an introduced plant in copses in Kent and Sussex. The plants are low-growing herbs with large tuberous rootstocks, from the surface of which spring a number of broad, generally heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, long-stalked leaves, which in cultivated forms are often beautifully marbled, ribbed or splashed. The flowers are nodding, and white, pink, lilac or crimson in colour. The corolla has a short tube and five large reflexed lobes. After flowering the stalk becomes spirally coiled, drawing the fruit down to the soil. Cyclamen is a favourite winter and spring flowering plant.C. persicumis probably the best known. It is a small-growing kind bearing medium-sized leaves and numerous flowers.C. giganteumis a large, strong-growing species; not quite so free flowering asC. persicum, but in all other respects superior to it when well grown.C. papiliodiffers in the fringed character of the petals. It has been obtained by selection fromC. persicum. There is also a very beautiful crested race, probably derived fromC. giganteum.

The plants are raised from seed, and, with good cultivation, flower in fifteen to eighteen months from date of sowing. Seed should be sown as soon as ripe, in July or August, in pots or pans, filled up to 2½ in. of the rim with broken crocks for drainage. The soil should consist of fibrous yellow loam, leaf-mould in flakes, and coarse silver-sand, in equal parts. Sow the seed thinly—¼ in. to ½ in. apart—and cover with a very thin sprinkling of the soil. Protect with a square of glass covered with a piece of brown paper for shade, and place on a shelf in a warm greenhouse. The soil should never be allowed to get dry.

When the seedlings appear, remove the covering, care being taken that they do not suffer for want of shade, water or a moist atmosphere. As soon as the third leaf appears, repot singly into thumb-pots in slightly coarser soil, so that the crowns of the little plants are just above the level of the soil. In December transfer into a little richer soil, consisting of two parts fibrous loam broken into small bits by hand and the fine particles rejected, one part flaked leaf-mould, passed through a half-inch sieve, half a part of plant ash from the burnt refuse heap and half a part of coarse silver-sand. Keep through the winter in a moist atmosphere at a temperature not below 50° Fahr., and as near the glass as possible. In March they should be ready for their next shift into 5-in. pots. The potting compost should be the same as for the last shift, with the addition of half a part of well-sweetened manure, such as a spent mushroom bed. Keep in a warm moist atmosphere and shade from strong sunlight. In June remove to cold frames and stand them on inverted pots well clear of one another. Slugs show a marked partiality for the succulent young leaves and should be excluded by dusting round the frames occasionally with newly slaked lime. The inverted pots serve as traps. The frames may thus be frequently syringed without keeping the plants unduly wet. Shade heavily from direct sunlight, but afford as much diffused light as practicable. Ventilate on all favourable occasions, and close the frames early after copious syringing.

By the end of the month they will be ready for the final shift into 7-in. pots. Much care must be used in handling them, the leaves being large, tender and numerous. The soil is as for the last potting. The frames should be kept close and heavily shadedfor a few days after potting; then gradually reduce shade and increase ventilation. By the end of July the elegance of the foliage alone should well repay the care bestowed on them. From this time onwards very little shading will be needed, the object of the cultivator being to harden the growth already made. With the advent of cool weather in September, remove to flowering quarters in a warm greenhouse. Flowering will begin in November and will continue through the winter and spring. The damping off of the flower-buds may occasionally prove troublesome during winter. This may generally be traced to checks, such as sudden changes in temperature, too low a temperature, careless watering, &c. During spring plants that are flowering freely will require weak manure water about twice a week.

Plants selected to bear seed should be set aside for that purpose, and as soon as the capsules are found to be developing properly they should be reduced to six or seven per plant, and all flower-buds picked off as soon as they are large enough to handle. The production of strong seeds is of the utmost importance.

Plants grown for market purposes, either for decoration or for seed, are sown later than the above, are kept cooler, and during summer receive more ventilation and less shade. This results in the production of plants with much smaller and more erect leaves, which travel well. They are flowered in spring and early summer. The species grown for this purpose isC. persicum.

A few species are hardy in dry sheltered positions, such as rockeries, under walls and old trees, provided the positions are well drained. Such areC. europaeum, with reddish-purple flowers in summer;C. hederifoliumin autumn; andC. neapolitanum, with large leaves marbled with silver and rosy-pink flowers.

CYCLE(Gr.κύκλος, a circle), in astronomy, a period of time at the end of which some aspect or relation of the heavenly bodies recurs. The more important cycles are discussed in the articlesCalendarandEclipse. In physics, the term is applied to a series of operations which, performed upon a system, brings it back to its original state; “Carnot’s Cycle” is an example (seeThermodynamics). From the use of the word for any period at the end of which the same events recur in the same order or for any complete series of phenomena, it is used loosely of any long period of time. The nameὁ ἐπικὸς κύκλος, the epic cycle, was given to the poems which complete the Homeric account of the Trojan War (see below). It is this use which has given rise to the application of the term “cycle” to a series of prose or poetical romances which have for a centre one subject, whether a person, as in the Alexander, Arthurian or Charlemagne cycles, or an object, such as the ring of the Nibelungenlied. In music “Song-cycle” (Ger.Liederkreis) is similarly used of a series of songs written round one subject or set to poems by the same author. Beethoven’sAn die ferne Geliebte(Op. 98), published in 1816, is the earliest instance. Schubert’sDie schöne Müllerin, Schumann’sDichterliebeand Brahms’sMagelone-Liederare well-known instances.

Epic Cycle.—This is a collection or corpus of lays written about 776-580B.C.by poets of the Ionian School, introductory or complementary to the Homeric poems, dealing with the legends of the Trojan and Theban wars. At a later date they were arranged so as to form a continuous narrative (theIliadand theOdysseyincluded), perhaps after certain alterations had been made, to fill up gaps and remove inconsistencies and repetitions. By whom, and when, they were so arranged, cannot be decided; it is possible that it was the work of Zenodotus of Ephesus, who had the care of the epic section of the Alexandrian library. In order to furnish the general reader with a comprehensive sketch of mythological history, Proclus—according to Welcker and Valesius (Valois), not the neo-Platonist, but an unknown 2nd or 3rd century grammarian, perhaps Eutychius Proclus of Sicca1in Africa, one of the tutors of Marcus Aurelius (seeProclus)—compiled a prose summary (Γραμματικὴ Χρηστομάθεια) of the contents of the poems, to serve as a sort of primer to Greek literature. Extracts from this are preserved in the Codex Venetus of Homer and Photius (cod. 239), according to which the epic cycle began with the union of Uranus and Ge and ended with the death of Odysseus on his return to Ithaca at the hands of his son Telegonus. The cycle was in existence in his (Proclus’s) time, and was in request not so much for its artistic merit, as for the “sequence of the events described in it.” Further light is thrown on the subject by pictorial representations, intended for school use during the Roman imperial period, the most famous of which is theTabula Iliacain the Capitoline museum.

The expression “epic cycle” in the sense of a poetical collection does not occur before the Christian era; the wordκύκλος(“cycle,” “circle”) is used of a special kind of short poem and also of a prose abstract of mythological history; the adjective has the general sense of “hackneyed,” “conventional,” and is applied contemptuously (by Callimachus and Horace) to a particular Alexandrian school of poetry.

The most important poems of the Trojan legendary cycle are theCypria of Stasinus(q.v.); theAethiopisandIliou Persis(Sack of Troy) of Arctinus (q.v.); theLittle Iliadof Lesches (q.v.); theNostiof Hagias or Agias; theTelegoniaof Eugammon. To the Theban cycle belong: theThebaisorExpedition of Amphiarausand theEpigoniof Antimachus. TheOechalias Halosis(capture ofOechalia) of Creophylus (q.v.); thePhocais(orMinyas) of Prodicus; and theDanaisof Cercops, although belonging to the old Homeric epos, cannot with certainty be included in the epic cycle. The names of the authors are in several cases exceedingly doubtful.

Bibliography.—The standard work on the subject is F. G. Welcker,Der epische Cyclus(1865-1882); see also T. W. Allen, “The Epic Cycle,” inClassical Quarterly, Jan. and April 1908 (summary of sources and authorities); Wilamowitz-Möllendorff,Homerische Untersuchungen(1884), who regards the traditional names and personalities of the poets of the cycle with great scepticism; D. B. Monro,Journal of Hellenic Studies, iv. (1883), appendix to his edition of theOdyssey, xiii.-xxiv. (1900), and on the Codex Venetus fragment of Proclus; J. E. Sandys,Hist. of Class. Schol.(2nd ed., 1906), vol. i. ch. 2; J. B. Bury,Ancient Greek Historians(1909), pp. 2-8 on the epics as history; articles by H. Flach in Ersch and Gruber,Allgemeine Encyklopädie, and by E. Schwartz and others in Pauly-Wissowa,Realencyclopädie.

1An objection to this view is that according to the Augustan historian Capitolinus (Antoninus, 2) Eutychius of Sicca was a Latin not a Greek grammarian.

CYCLING,the clipped term now given comprehensively to the sport or exercise of riding a bicycle (q.v.) or tricycle (q.v.).

Suggestions of vehicles having two or more wheels and propelled by the muscular effort of the rider or riders are to be found in very early times, even on the bas-reliefs of Egypt and Babylon and the frescoes of Pompeii; but thoughHistory.sporadic examples of such contrivances are recorded in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was apparently not till the beginning of the 19th century that they were used to any considerable extent. A “velocipede” invented by Blanchard and Magurier, and described in theJournal de Parison the 27th of July 1779, differed little from thecélérifèreproposed by another Frenchman, de Sivrac, in 1690; it consisted of a wooden bar rigidly connecting two wheels placed one in front of the other, and was propelled by the rider, seated astride the bar, pushing against the ground with his feet. The next advance was made in thedraisineof Freiherr Karl Drais von Sauerbronn (1785-1851), described in hisAbbildung und Beschreibung seiner neu erfundenen Laufmaschine(Nuremberg, 1817). In this the front wheel was pivoted on the frame so that it could be turned sideways by a handle, thus serving to steer the machine (figs. 1 and 2). A similar machine, the “celeripede,” also with a movable front wheel, is said to have been ridden by J. N. Niepce in Paris some years before. In England the draisine achieved a great, though temporary, vogue under various names, such as velocipede, patent accelerator, bivector, bicipedes, pedestrian curricle (patented by Dennis Johnson in 1818), dandy horse, hobby horse, &c., and for a time it was popular in America also. The propulsion of the draisine by pushing with the feet being alleged to give rise to diseases of the legs, arrangements were soon suggested, as by Louis Gompertz in England in 1821, by which the front wheel could be rotated by the hands with the aid of a systemof gearing, but the idea of providing mechanical connexions between the feet and the wheels was apparently not thought of till later. Pedals with connecting rods working on the rear axle are said to have been applied to a tricycle in 1834 by Kirkpatrick McMillan, a Scottish blacksmith of Keir, Dumfriesshire, and to a draisine by him in 1840, and by a Scottish cooper, Gavin Dalzell, of Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, about 1845. The draisine thus fitted had wooden wheels, with iron tires, the leading one about 30 in. in diameter and the driving one about 40 in., and thus it formed the prototype, though not the ancestor, of the modern rear-driven safety bicycle.

For the next 20 years little was done, and then began the evolution of the high “ordinary” bicycle with a large driving wheel in front and a small trailing one behind. About 1865 Pierre Lallement in Paris constructed a bicycle in which the front wheel was driven by pedals and cranks attached directly to its axle, but it is doubtful whether the origin of this idea must be attributed to him or to Ernest Michaux, the son of his employer, who was a carriage repairer. Lallement took his machine to the United States, and in 1866 was granted a patent which had an important influence on the subsequent course of the cycle industry in that country. This machine, consisting of a wooden frame supported on two wooden wheels (fig. 3), soon became popular in England, as well as in France and America, and came to be called bicycle (or bysicle) by those who took it seriously and “boneshaker” by those who did not. Improvements quickly followed, chiefly in England, for in America the popularity of the machine was short-lived, and in France the industry was checked by the Franco-German war. Rubber tires, in place of iron ones, appeared in 1868, and in two or three years were made very large, 2 in. or more in width. Suspension wheels, with wire spokes in tension, were seen at the Crystal Palace, London, on the “Phantom” (fig. 4) of W. F. Reynolds and J. A. Mays in 1869, and early in the same year the manufacture of bicycles, at first for export to France, was begun in England by the Coventry Sewing Machine Company, till then makers of sewing machines. There was a rapid growth in the size of the front wheel, which in the boneshaker normally measured 36 or 38 in. in diameter, with a corresponding shrinkage in the rear wheel (fig. 5), until by 1874, the date of the invention of the tangent wheel by J. K. Starley 54-in. wheels were being made. The high bicycle was now fairly established in form, and the changes made in the subsequent 10 or 15 years during which it retained its supremacy were chiefly in the details of construction, such as the adoption of steel tubing for the frames, the use of hollow rims in the wheels and the application first of cone and then of ball bearings to points of friction. The weight of a 54-in. bicycle, which in 1874-1875 exceeded 50 or even 60 ℔, was thus reduced to well under 40 ℔ in machines intended for use on ordinary roads, and to not much over 20 ℔ in the case of racers.

The high “ordinary” bicycle (fig. 6) gave unquestionable pleasure to many riders, and very fast times were made with it both on the road and on the racing path. In 1882 H. L. Cortis rode 20 m. 300 yds. in one hour, and in April 1884 Thomas Stevens started from San Francisco to ride round the world, a feat which he accomplished in December 1886. But it had various disadvantages. The vibration set up by the small back wheel was very trying, and in spite of the size of the front one the rider had to move his pedals at an uncomfortably rapid rate if he wished to maintain a good speed. Moreover his seat was placed in such a position that he was liable to be pitched over the handlebar if his wheel encountered a comparatively small obstacle. Attempts were made to remedy these inconveniences in various ways. From the early ’eighties much attention was devoted to tricycles, and these were produced in innumerable designs, whether for a single rider, or for two in the form of “sociables,” in which the riders sat side by side, or of “tandems,” in which one sat behind the other. But their weight, and consequently the exertion of propelling them, was necessarily greater than in the case of the bicycle, and by the end of the decade, the demand for them had fallen off, though they are still made to a certain extent, chiefly for carrying purposes. The two-track dicycle (fig. 7), invented by E. C. F. Otto about 1879, in which the rider balanced himself between two equal wheels placed abreast, also failed to secure lasting success.

The improvement of the high bicycle was attempted in two directions. On the one hand it was modified by placing the rider farther back, his position “over his work” being ensured by arranging the pedals immediately below him and connecting them to the front wheel, which was usually reduced in size, by levers and cranks or by chain-gearing, often with a multiplying action. On the other, the rear wheel was enlarged and made the driving wheel. The “’Xtraordinary” (fig. 8), “Facile” (fig. 9) and “Kangaroo” were examples of the former kind, which were often spoken of as “dwarf-safeties”; but though a good many of them were used about 1880 and following years, both they and the “ordinary” bicycle ultimately disappeared before machines of the second kind, which developed into the modern rear-driven safety. There are numerous claimants for the invention—or rather the reinvention—of this type,but it appears that the credit for its practical and commercial introduction in substantially its present form is due to J. K. Starley in England. His “Rover” (fig. 10), brought out late in 1885, had two nearly equal wheels, the driving wheel 30 in. in diameter and the steering 32 in., and the rider sat so far back that he could not be thrown forward over the handles. The motion imparted by the pedals to a sprocket wheel mounted between the wheels was transmitted by an endless chain to the rear wheel, and by sufficiently increasing the size of this sprocket wheel the machine could be made to travel as far or farther than the “ordinary” for each complete revolution of the pedals. From about 1890 the “safety” monopolized the field. At first it was fitted with the narrow rubber tires customary at the time, but these gave way to pneumatic tires, invented in 1888 by J. B. Dunlop, a veterinary surgeon of Belfast, whose idea, however, had been anticipated in the English patent taken out by R. W. Thomson in 1845. The result was a great gain in comfort, due to reduction of vibration, and a remarkable increase of speed or, alternatively, decrease of exertion. Subsequent progress was mainly in the details of design and manufacture, tending to secure lightness combined with adequate strength, and such was the success attained, by the application of scientific principles and of improved methods and materials to the construction of the frames and other parts, that while the weight of the original “Rover” was about 50 ℔ that of its successors 20 years later with 28-in. wheels was reduced by 35 or 45%, or even 60% in the case of racing machines. The beginning of the 20th century saw the introduction of two innovations: one was the “free-wheel,” a device which allows the driving wheel to rotate independently of the chain and pedals, so that the rider, controlling his speed with powerful brakes, can “coast” down a hill using the stationary pedals as foot-rests; and the other was the motor-cycle, in which a petrol-engine relieves him, except at starting, from all personal exertion, though at the cost of considerable vibration. A third contrivance, which, however, was an idea of considerably older date, also began to find favour about the same period in the shape of two-speed and three-speed gears, enabling the rider at will to alter the ratio between the speed of revolution of his pedals and of his driving wheel, and thereby accommodate himself to the varying gradients of the road he is traversing (see alsoBicycle,TricycleandTire).

The safety bicycle, with pneumatic tires, rendered cycling universally popular, not merely as a pastime but as a convenient means of locomotion for everyday use. Made with a drop-frame, it also enabled women to cycle without being confined to a heavy tricycle or compelled to assume “rational dress.” In consequence there was an enormous expansion in the cycle industry. In England the demand for machines had become so great by 1895 that the makers were unable to cope with it. Numbers of new factories were started, small shops grew into large companies, and the capital invested advanced by millions of pounds. The makers who had devoted their mechanical skill to perfecting the methods of cycle-construction were swallowed up by company promoters and adventurers, bent simply upon filling their own pockets. The march of mechanical invention and improvement was arrested, and machines, instead of being built by mechanics proud of their work, in many cases were merely put together in the shortest possible time and in a few standard patterns. For these the world clamoured, and for a year they could not be produced fast enough. Then the demand fell off, the British market became over-stocked, and as the British makers declined to consider the wants of foreign customers, their store-rooms remained crowded with machines that could not be sold. Speculative finance, such as was exemplified in 1896 by the flotation for £5,000,000 of the Dunlop tire company, which had been started in 1889 with a capital of £25,000, had its natural effects. There ensued widespread and continuing disorganization of the trade, which had to be met by extensive reconstructions of over-capitalized companies. English makers too had lost the commanding international position they once enjoyed, when they supplied almost the entire demand for bicycles in many parts of the world, including the United States. In America the manufacture of bicycles was not begun until about 1878, when it was introduced by A. A. Pope (1843-1909), and even by 1890 the value of the products barely exceeded 2½ million dollars, while for several years later much of the steel tubing required for bicycle manufacture continued to be imported from Great Britain. The industry, however, thanks to automatic machinery and perfect organization, grew rapidly, and in 1900 the value of its products was nearly 32 million dollars. In the two years 1897 and 1898 the exports of cycles and cycle parts alone were worth nearly 14 million dollars, though they fell off in subsequent years, and English makers had to contend with an American invasion in addition to their domestic troubles. But the competition was short-lived. The American makers sent over machines with single tube tires and wooden rims which did not secure the approval of the British purchaser, and so they too lost their hold. In the opening years of the 20th century the industry in Great Britain gradually recovered itself. More attention was paid to the production of cheap machines which were sound and trustworthy, and sales were further stimulated by the introduction of systems of deferred payments. In 1905 about 600,000 machines were made in Great Britain, and 47,604 were exported, the total value of the home-market for cycles and their parts being about 3½ millions sterling, and of the export trade about one million. In the same year the number of machines imported was only 2345.

Cycle tours were taken and cycle clubs established almost as soon as the cycle appeared, the Pickwick Bicycle Club in London, founded in 1870, being the oldest in the world. The organization of these clubs is chiefly ofTouring clubs.a social character, and a few possess well-appointed club-houses. To a great extent they have been superseded by the large touring organizations. The Cyclists’ Touring Club, organized in 1878 as the Bicycle Touring Club, has members scattered through Europe, America and even the East. Many other countries possess national clubs, as for instance the League of American Wheelmen, founded in 1880, and the Touring Club de France, founded in 1895, of whose objects cycling is only one, though the chief. The aim of these national associations, which have formed an international touring league, is the promotion of cycle touring. To this end they publish roadbooks, maps and journals; they recommend hotels, with fixed tariffs, in their own and other countries; they appoint representatives to aid their members when touring; and they have succeeded in inducing most governments to allow their members to travel freely across frontiers without paying duty on their machines. In all countries they have erected warning-boards at dangerous places; in France the best route is suggested by a sign-post, and cyclists who meet with accidents in lonely places find repair outfits provided for their free use. Another important part of the work of these clubs, either directly or indirectly, is the improvement of the roads. France has done more for the cyclist than any other country, owing to the factthat she possesses the best roads, kept up to a certain extent by the cycle tax, whereby the cyclist acquires a certain official position and right; moreover cycles accompanied by their owners are conveyed without extra charge on the railways, and aid is given to the sport and pastime from public funds. In Belgium the cycle has worked a veritable revolution in the national life. The surface of the greater part of the country being loose and sandy, the roads have been paved, and this paving is so bad as to be impossible for light traffic. The cycle tax has consequently been devoted, first, to the construction of paths on which cyclists have equal rights with pedestrians, and secondly to the replacing of the paving by macadam. In this way alone cycling has proved of inestimable benefit to Belgium and Luxembourg. In the United States measures for securing good roads and side paths have been introduced in various states, mainly at the instigation first of cyclists and then of motorists, and in Great Britain the Roads Improvement Association has worked for the same end.

Each country also possesses an organization for the government of cycle racing; and although these unions, one object of which—usually the main one—is the encouragement of cycle racing and cycle legislation, boast an enormousRacing.membership, their membership is often composed of clubs and not individuals. Among the most important are the National Cyclists’ Union of England and the Union Vélocipédique of France. These bodies are also bound together by the International Cyclists’ Association, which is devoted mainly to the promotion of racing and legislation connected with it all over the world. The National Cyclists’ Union, originally the Bicycle Union, which was the parent body of all, formed in February 1878, was the first to put up danger-boards, and also was early instrumental, alone and with the C.T.C., in framing or suggesting laws for the proper government and regulation of cycle traffic, notably in establishing its position as a vehicle in securing universal rights, in endeavouring, again in conjunction with the C.T.C., to increase facilities for the carriage of cycles on the railways, in securing the opening of parks, and in promoting many other equally praiseworthy objects. For a number of years, however, it has been more prominent as the ruling race-governing body. But cycle racing has fallen upon evil days. At one time cycle racing attracted a large number of spectators, but gradually it lost the public favour, or rather was ignored by the public because it became mainly an advertisement for cycle makers. The presence of the man, directly or indirectly, in the employ of, or aided by a maker, and the consequent mixing up of trade and sport, lowered racing not only in the public estimation, but in that of all genuine amateurs. There have always been a few amateurs who have raced for the love of the sport, but the greater number of prominent racing men have raced for the benefit of a firm, so much so that, at one time, an entire section of racing men were classed as “makers’ amateurs.” They did not confine themselves to the race track, but appropriated the public roads until they became a danger and a nuisance, and road-racing finally was abolished, though record rides, as they are called, are still indulged in, being winked at by the police and by the cycling authorities. The makers’ amateurs at least rode to win and to make the best time possible. But the scandal was so great that a system of licensing riders was adopted by the N.C.U., and if this did not effectively kill the sport, the introduction of waiting races did. There probably is considerable skill in riding two-thirds of a race as slowly as possible, and only hurrying the last part of the last lap, but it does not amuse the public, who want to see a fast race as well as a close finish. The introduction of pacing by multicycles and motors next took from cycle racing what interest was left. A motor race, in which the machines are run at top speed, is more exciting than the spectacle of a motor being driven at a rate which the cyclist can follow with the protection of a wind-shield. In America this system of proving what cyclists can do with racing machines was carried so far that in 1899 a board track was laid down on the Long Island railway for about 2 m. between the metals, and a cyclist named Murphy, followed a train, and protected by enormous wind-shields, succeeded in covering a mile in less than a minute in the autumn of 1900. Other cyclists have devoted themselves, at the instigation of makers, to the riding of 100 m. a day every day for a year. It would be difficult to say what advantage there is in these trials and contests. They are not convincing records, and only prove that some people are willing to take great personal risks for the benefit of their employers. E. Hale, during 1899-1900, covered 32,496 m. in 313 days. For many years also long-distance races, mostly of six days’ duration, have been promoted on covered tracks, and though condemned by all cycling organizations, they find a great deal of pecuniary support.

The cycle has also been taken up for military purposes. For this idea the British army is indebted to Colonel A. R. Savile, whoMilitary.in 1887 organized the first series of cycle manœvres in England. Since then military cycling has undergone a great development, not only in the country of its origin but in most others.

Cycling has produced a literature of its own, both of the pastime and of the trade. Owing to the enormous profits which, for several years, were obtained by cycle makers, a trade pressLiterature.appeared which simply lived by, and out of, its advertisers; and though each country has one or more genuine trade journals, the large proportion of these sheets have been worth, in a business aspect, as little practically as from a literary standpoint. On the other hand a vast mass of practical and unpractical, scientific and medical, historical and touring treatises and records have appeared, but mostly of a rather ephemeral character.

CYCLOID(from Gr.κύκλος, circle, andεἶδος, form), in geometry, the curve traced out by a point carried on a circle which rolls along a straight line. The name cycloid is now restricted to the curve described when the tracing-point is on the circumference of the circle; if the point is either within or without the circle the curves are generally termedtrochoids, but they are also known as theprolateandcurtatecycloids respectively. The cycloid is the simplest member of the class of curves known as roulettes.

No mention of the cycloid has been found in writings prior to the 15th century. Francis Schooten (Commentary on Descartes) assigns the invention of the curve to René Descartes and the first publication on this subject after Descartes to Marin Mersenne. Evangelista Torricelli, in the first regular dissertation on the cycloid (De dimensione cycloidis, an appendix to hisDe dimensione parabolae, 1644), states that his friend and tutor Galileo discovered the curve about 1599. John Wallis discussed both the history and properties of the curve in a tractDe cycloidepublished at Oxford in 1659. He there shows that the cycloid was investigated by Carolus Bovillus about 1500, and by Cardinal Cusanus (Nicolaus de Cusa) as early as 1451. Honoré Fabri (Synopsis geometrica, 1669) treated of the curve and enumerated many theorems concerning it. Many other mathematicians have written on the cycloid—Blaise Pascal, W. G. Leibnitz, the Bernoullis, Roger Cotes and others—and so assiduously was it studied that it was sometimes named the “Helen of Geometers.” The determination of the area was the subject of many investigations and much controversy. Galileo attempted the evaluation by weighing the curve against the generating circle; this rough method gave only an approximate value, viz., a little less than thrice the generating circle. Torricelli, by employing the “method of indivisibles,” deduced that the area was exactly three times that of the generating circle; this result had been previously established in 1640 in France by G. P. de Roberval, but his investigation was unknown in Italy. Blaise Pascal determined the area of the section made by any line parallel to the base and the volumes and centres of gravity of the solids generated by revolving the curve about its axis and base. Before publishing his results he proposed these problems for public competition in 1658 under the assumed name of Amos Dettonville. John Wallis in England, and A. la Louère in France, accepted the challenge, but the former could only submit incorrect solutions, while the latter failed completely. Having established his priority, Pascal published his investigations, which occasioned a great sensation among his contemporaries, and Wallis was enabled to correct his methods. Sir Christopher Wren, the famous architect, determined the length of the arc andits centre of gravity, and Pierre Fermat deduced the surface of the spindle generated by its revolution. A famous period in the history of the cycloid is marked by a bitter controversy which sprang up between Descartes and Roberval. The evaluation of the area of the curve had made Roberval famous in France, but Descartes considered that the value of his investigation had been grossly exaggerated; he declared the problem to be of an elementary nature and submitted a short and simple solution. At the same time he challenged Roberval and Fermat to construct the tangent; Roberval failed but Fermat succeeded. This problem was solved independently by Vicenzo Viviani in Italy. The cartesian equation was first given by Wilhelm Gottfried Leibnitz (Acta eruditorum, 1686) in the form y = (2x − x²)½ + ∫(2x − x²)½dx. Among other early writers on the cycloid were Phillippe de Lahire (1640-1718) and François Nicole (1683-1758).

The mechanical properties of the cycloid were investigated by Christiaan Huygens, who proved the curve to be tautochronous. His enquiries into evolutes enabled him to prove that the evolute of a cycloid was an equal cycloid, and by utilizing this property he constructed the isochronal pendulum generally known as thecycloidal pendulum. In 1697 John Bernoulli proposed the famous problem of thebrachistochrone(seeMechanics), and it was proved by Leibnitz, Newton and several others that the cycloid was the required curve.

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