THE BICYCLE.
Of the various kinds of velocipedes, four, three, two, and one wheeled, the bicycle seems to be considered the most artistic, is altogether the most in favor, and steadily maintains its ground against all rivals. Whether it will be the model velocipede of the future remains to be seen. The various experiments now being tried will, no doubt, eventually result in a nearly perfect machine, but it will requirea season’s experience fully to develop the ingenuity of our American artisans.
Many have expressed doubts as to the real utility of the velocipede, and the permanency of its use. They seem to think it a frivolous invention only calculated to serve purposes of amusement, and soon to be superseded by some other ephemeral claimant for popularity. Most of these have based their opinions upon the disuse into which rude machines have fallen in former times. But the difference in the construction of the modern velocipede from the primitive one has entirely changed the character of the vehicle. It is no longer a draft vehicle, but a locomotive, and as much superior to the original bar on wheels, as the improved steam locomotive is to the old time stage-coach.
We believe in the utility, convenience, and economy of the innovation, as well as in its capacity for affording amusement, and developing strength and skill; and believe as now improved, it is destined to mark an era in the history of vehicles. It has passed the period of being a mere toy, and although as the novelty wears away, there may be less enthusiasm, it will continue to be used, and in an increasing degree, for street locomotion. With those who live in the cities and require a daily exercise, exhilarating, pleasant, healthful, and free from expense; with those who reside in the country and have longdistances to traverse daily in reaching the scene of their labors, or with those who have leisure and wealth at their command, but love such exercises as afford an opportunity for the display of grace, agility, and skill, the velocipede has already become as great a favorite in this country as it is in France and England.
Its want of adaptability to the roughly paved road-ways of our cities, is already, in a great measure, overcome, and experience has proved its facilityin rure. We have seen the bicycle run with ease on country roads, and dashing with full speed through city streets, totally regardless of curbstones or crossings. In New York, no matter where you go, a velocipede is sure to whiz past you. The school-boy rides up Fifth Avenue in the morning, with his books strapped before him. In Broadway, where stages, wagons, carts, trucks, and carriages, clog the street from morning till night, the iron steed may be seen gracefully cutting its way among the larger vehicles.
The exercise is not tiresome, except to the beginner. We have found twelve miles on a country road no more fatiguing than a brisk walk of two. We believe a man may ride and drive one at the rate of ten miles an hour, with less fatigue than he could walk one quarter of that distance. Some people ride easier than others, as some skate easier. Some people make hard work of anything. Lazypeople will never fall in love with the bicycle, because to ride one requires all the faculties to be alive and in action. To keep one’s balance, however, does not require that constant labor and exertion which novices suppose. “Familiarity breeds contempt,” the old adage says. Familiarity with the bicycle becomes a sort of second nature, and a velocipedean, after a fair amount of experience, finds himself almost as perfectly at home astride his two-wheeler, as he does on his feet.
When John Brent rode his horse across the plains in search of adventure, the era of the two-wheeled velocipede had not come upon us. We think the bicycle an animal, which will, in a great measure, supersede the horse. It does not cost as much; it will not eat, kick, bite, get sick, or die. It requires no stabling, no feed, no water, no curry-comb. It never “balks,” or “rares up.” It never needs a halter or a harness. It is light, and little, and leans lovingly against you for support. Its gait is uniform and easy, beautiful and exhilarating to see, and simple to analyze. It glides along with smooth grace, as though it were alive.
Young America is pictured coming in on a velocipede. Henry Ward Beecher thinks the coming man will ride one, and we shall not be surprised to see his prediction fulfilled, and devout worshippers propelling themselves to church on Sunday with all due gravity and decorum.
Velocipeding is a hopeful sign of progress. If that man is a benefactor who makes two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, he should come in for a share of praise, who teaches a man to go ten miles as easily and as quickly as he previously went one. “Time is money;” and whatever of it is saved is often so much cash. As the velocipede serves its purpose in this direction, it may be regarded as a good savings institution.
We think that decided good will grow out of this invention. Riding the velocipede affords pleasurable excitement, which is what most men drink liquor for, and it leaves no sting behind. It takes men from the bar-rooms out into the pure air, into God’s light and sunshine, and braces their lungs with the very breath of Heaven. It stimulates them to save what they would otherwise spend foolishly, that they may invest it in a machine which is a source of health and pleasure, as well as of utility. It is an inducement to young men who work in close apartments to spend more time in the open air, and furnishes them a means of healthful, invigorating, and, at the same time, pleasant exercise, such as nothing else can possibly afford.
Serious accidents on the velocipede are almost unheard of, and the predictions that these machines would prove dangerous have not been verified. It will fall down, but the rider need not fall with itunless he chooses. It is no more dangerous than a horse and carriage, under any circumstances, and not nearly so much so, with ordinary caution.
The speed attained by the swifter kind of velocipede on the roads, averages from twelve to thirteen miles an hour. On a smooth, level floor, such a speed can be maintained with but little effort on almost any machine. It is safe to say that a good velocipede rider can travel a hundred miles as quickly as an ordinary horse with an ordinary load. Of course, the more a person rides, the easier it becomes, and the less the fatigue.
In impelling a velocipede, the limbs are not constantly in motion; for on level ground, when the impetus is at the average rate, or when the machine is descending an incline, the feet may be removed from the pedals, and the legs be placed on the bar, fixed in front of the machine for that purpose. A slight impulsion to the vehicle from time to time suffices to keep up the speed. When a rider encounters a formidable hill, he can dismount and lead his bicycle by the hand. He can do this with almost the same ease that he can carry an ordinary walking-stick. A hill, to be insurmountable, has to be, however, of more than average steepness. Though Massachusetts is proverbially hilly, there is no ascent between Boston and Worcester, a distance of thirty miles, that cannot be ridden over with the bicycle.The best speed thus far attained on the road is a mile in a few seconds over three minutes. A gentleman in New Jersey, a few weeks since, travelled fifty miles in four hours and a half. A gentleman residing in 22d Street, New York, goes down town to his business on his velocipede in twelve minutes. Adepts abroad find no difficulty whatever in accomplishing fully fifty miles in five hours, without once alighting from their vehicles. A few months ago, a couple of amateurs, making a tour through a part of France, challenged each other as to which could perform the greatest distance in four and twenty hours. One accomplished eighty-seven miles, the other one hundred and twenty-three. A party of nine quitted Rouen early in the morning on their velocipedes, and arrived in Paris in time for dinner the same evening; having performed the distance of eighty-five miles, exclusive of stoppages, and at a rate of speed averaging between ten and twelve miles an hour. An English gentleman travelled the distance from London to Bristol, one hundred and thirty-five miles, between the hours of three o’clock,P. M., one day, and tenA. M.the next, stopping some hours in Reading.
In Paris, the Americans carry off the prizes for slow as well as fast riding. The slow riding is much the more difficult. It is much easier for the rider to keep his equilibrium while riding swiftly.
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes once published an article in the “Atlantic Monthly,” entitled “The Human Wheel; its Spokes and Felloes;” in which he treated the act of walking as analagous to the movement of a wheel: the legs being the spokes and the feet the felloes. Had he postponed his humorous and instructive essay a year or two, he would have found himself behind the age.
It is perhaps not generally known to what an extent the bicycle mania prevails, and how rapidly the idea has germinated, budded, and bloomed, not only throughout our own country, but in various parts of the world. In New York some ten thousand pupils are ready to graduate from the schools and appear upon the roads. In Boston there will soon be nearly as many more; while Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco count their experts by the hundred and their novices by the thousand. We hear of the bicycle in the far West and in Texas. We read that New Orleans proposes to purchase velocipedes for its fire companies, and hear of a velocipede military company in Louisville. We play velocipede music, and in our walks velocipede “Livery Stables” and “Velocipedes to Let,” greet our eyes. The shop-windows on our fashionable thoroughfares display Velocipede Hats, Velocipede Gloves, and Velocipede Shoes.
The machines have become so numerous on thesidewalks of Providence, New Bedford, and other New England towns, that the stunned authorities contemplated prohibiting their use, as a nuisance. The various merits of various machines are discussed on the street corners with as much zeal as were ever the diversified merits of horse-flesh; and experts are to be heard talking of these new substitutes for legs as jockeys are wont to talk of the wind, strength, bottom, gait, and “go” of Eclipses, Dexters, and Ethan Allens.
In France, fashion writers and fashion leaders rack their brains for the contrivance of velocipede costumes; velocipede clubs are formed; velocipede championships contested for at velocipede tournaments. There are not less than ten thousand machines running in the streets of Paris. They are used by postmen, government employees, students, messengers, and peddlers; and shopmen send their clerks about on machines covered with flashy advertisements. All velocipedes there are required to carry lanterns in the evening, and though we have no such regulations here, young gentlemen may be seen almost every night, in our cities, riding their velocipedes with head-lights attached.
In Paris they can be seen driving at break-neck speed along the narrow stone parapet beside the Seine, and even down the hundred steps of the Trocadéro, their riders all the time indulging in gymnasticfeats that would seem to invite certain destruction. At Rome, gentlemen practice the bicycle in the court-yards, and are seen riding on the Piazza de Spagna. Country trips are taken upon them in Japan, and they are no longer a novelty in the streets of the larger Chinese cities.