THE VELOCIPEDE:
ITS HISTORY AND ORIGIN.
We have spent much time in fruitless and weary researches over old French books and musty journals, and have found that there is but very little about the Velocipede, in the literature, or dictionaries and encyclopedias of ancient or modern times.
In the “Journal de Paris” of July 27, 1779, there is a description of a vehicle invented by Messrs. Blanchard and Mesurier, the former the celebrated aeronaut, which was exhibited on the Place Louis XV., named to-day Place de Concorde, in the presence of many members of the French Academy and a large concourse of spectators. At the head of the machine was the figure of an eagle, with outspread wings, to which was attached the apparatus with which the driver directed its movements. Behind it was seated an individual who propelled the machine. At a subsequent date, the inventor transported the vehicle to Versailles, and exhibited its capabilities, in the presence of Louis XVI., Marie Antoinette, and their effeminate court.
At a later date M. Dreuze made an improvement on this invention, which met with some success as a toy. A number of these machines were constructed after his model, and distributed among country postmen, who used the novelty for a time, until a heavy fall of snow rendered them unserviceable, when they were abandoned, greatly to the gratification of a conservative class, who, detesting anything in the way of innovation, had prophesied their failure.
The article upon the Velocipede in the “American Encyclopedia,” commences by giving the well-known derivation of the word from the Latinvelox, swift, andpes, a foot, and defines it as a carriage, by means of which the rider propels himself along the ground, and states that it was invented at Manheim.
In a little old French book called “Dictionnaire de Conversation,” under the wordVelocipede, we are referred to the wordDrasienne, on turning to which, we find a description of the three-wheeled arm movement Velocipede, and the credit of its invention ascribed to Baron Charles Drais de Saverbrun, at Manheim, at the early commencement of the nineteenth century. The Drasienne, though a decidedly crude idea, differed very materially from the clumsy structure of Messrs. Blanchard and Mesurier.
Baron Drais de Saverbrun seems to be universally considered the inventor of the germ, which has developed into the present improved Velocipede. Hewas a man of considerable scientific attainments, and author of several works; son of a lawyer, himself a landscape gardener; and died at Carlsruhe, December 12, 1851. He was master of the woods and forests of the Grand Duke of Baden, and rode about upon the Drasienne, while performing his official duties.
This invention made itsdébutin 1816, in the garden of Tivoli, which was at that time the favorite resort of thecrême de la crêmeof Parisian society. As originally constructed it appears to have been of the most simple kind. It consisted of a bar five feet long, supported at each end upon a single wheel, that designed for the front being so arranged as to turn obliquely to the line of the carriage. The rider sat astride the bar, and propelled the machine by the action of the feet upon the ground. The motion was much like walking upon the heels; as the feet were brought down flat, the heels were the first to touch. The vehicle was never generally patronized, because the pleasure of riding it was counterbalanced by the labor of propelling it. It was called the “Célérifère,” or “makespeed,” and many shafts of ridicule were leveled mercilessly at it. The mode of propelling it was not graceful, and this ridicule was not without foundation. It disappeared from view in France almost as rapidly as its inventor expected it to roll into public favor.
This novel vehicle, under the name of “Drasina” was introduced into England in 1818, and, at first, the greatest possible expectations were created, with regard to its usefulness and speed. It was maintained, that it would travel up-hill on a post-road as fast as a man could walk; that on a level, even after a heavy rain, it would average six or seven miles an hour; and that, on a descent, it would equal a horse at full speed. It was described in the advertisements of the day as “consisting of two wheels, one behind the other, connected by a perch, on which a saddle is placed as a seat. The front wheel is made to turn on a pivot, guided by a circular lever or rudder, which comes up to the hand;the fore-arms rest on a cushion in front; in this position, both hands holding the rudder firmly, the machine and traveller are preservedin equilibrio.”
In 1821 Lewis Gompertz of Surrey, introduced some decided improvements upon the Drasina, as will be seen from the accompanying engraving, extracted from the 39th volume of the English “Repertory of Arts.”
The object of the improvement of Gompertz was to bring the arms of the rider into action, in assistance to his legs. It consisted “in the application of a handle, C, which is to be worked backwards and forwards, to which is attached a circular rack, D G, which works in a pinion, E, with ratch wheel on thefront wheel of the velocipede, and which, on being pulled by the rider with both hands, sends the machine forward; and when thrust from him does not send it back again, on account of the ratch, which allows the pinion to turn in that direction, free of the wheel. H is the saddle, and the rest, B is so made that the breast of the rider bears against it, while the sides come around him at some distance below the arms, and is stuffed.” The rider could with this machine either propel it entirely without the feet, or he could use the feet, while the arms were free. The beam, A, was made of beech wood, and a pivot at F, allowed the front wheel to be turned to the right or left at the will of the rider. This must have been, although somewhat clumsily shaped, quite an efficientmachine, good for the times—forty-eight years ago. It will be seen that it has many features in common with the one now in vogue, though the difference in the manner of propelling completely changes the character of the vehicle.
Among those who distinguished themselves on the velocipede in England was Michael Faraday the chemist, who frequently drove his machine through the suburbs of London.
The velocipede was cultivated most assiduously for some little time by the sporting gentry of England; but Lord George Bentinck and other persons of fashion finally pronounced so decidedly against it, that it descended to the vulgar level of a plaything for young people, and ceased to be regarded in any other light than that of a toy or hobby. While the fever lasted, a shoemaker of London made much money by the manufacture of a strong shoe, soled with iron, which greatly aided the feet of the “Velocipeders,” as they went over the ground.
William Howitt, in his “Visits to Remarkable Places,” a book published in 1841, makes mention of the velocipede as follows—the passage is taken from a description of Alnwick Castle, the ancient seat of the Percy family: “Among the curiosities laid up here, are also two velocipedes, machines which twenty years ago were for a short period much in vogue. One young man of my acquaintance rode on one ofthese wooden horses all the way from London to Falkirk in Scotland, and was requested at various towns to exhibit his management of it to the ladies and gentlemen of the place. He afterward made a long excursion to France upon it. He was a very adroit velocipedean, and was very much amused with the circumstance of a gentleman meeting him by the river side, who, requesting to be allowed to try it, and being shown how he must turn the handle in order to guide it, set off with great spirit, but turning the wrong way, soon found himself hurrying to the edge of the river, where in his flurry, instead of turning the handle the other way, he began lustily shouting ‘Woh!’ ‘woh!’ and so crying plunged headlong into the stream. The Duke’s horse, which is laid up here for the gratification of posterity, was, I believe, not so unruly; yet I was told its pranks caused it to be disused and here stabled. It is said that the duke and his physicians used to amuse themselves with careering about the grounds on these steeds; but one day being somewhere on the terrace, his grace’s Trojan steed capsized, and rolled over and over with him down the green bank, much to the amusement of a troop of urchins who were mounted on a wall by the road to witness this novel kind of racing. On this accident the velocipede was laid up in lavender, and a fine specimen of the breed it is. I asked the old porter if the story was true, but he only said, ‘Mind!I did not tell you that. Don’t pretend to say, if you write any account of this place, that you had that from me.’”
The machine was introduced into New York in 1819, where it was given the English name of “Hobby-horse” or “Dandy-horse.” The excitable citizens went into an ecstasy of astonishment and delight, and the manufacturers found it impossible to meet the demand. A place was opened for their exhibition near Bowling Green, and people used to run on them up and down the Bowery, and the hill that led from Chatham Street to the City Hall Park. The rage for them soon extended throughout the country; and we hear of them in Philadelphia, Yonkers, Troy, Saratoga, and Boston. At Troy in the fall of 1819, a firm, Davis and Rogers, manufactured a number of machines, and used to let them to the young bloods about town, at twenty-five cents an hour. In Boston they became quite common, and, moonlight nights, students from the classic shades of Old Harvard could be seen running them across the long bridge into the city.
In a New York paper of those days we find an interesting account of a newly invented velocipede for ladies then building “by a distinguished artist.” “It is to have beams, or bodies on springs, and four wheels which will insure its safety. It is to quarter on the road like other carriages; and with fourimpellersit is supposed it will proceed with astonishing rapidity; but its peculiar recommendation is to be conveyance of two ladies and twoimpellersat the rate of six miles an hour.”
The “Ladies Literary Cabinet” (published corner Chatham and Duane streets), of Saturday, August 9, 1819, gives a very amusing account of a hoax which seems to have completely deceived the citizens: “Velocipede Hoax.Some mischievous wag on Saturday last, caused printed hand-bills to be distributed, announcing that on Monday at five o’clock precisely, a velocipede would start from the head of Chatham Square, and proceed to St. Paul’s Church in less than two minutes, and that it would afterward be exhibited in the Park, etc. Notwithstanding the rain on Monday, the people began to collect at an early hour, so that before five o’clock Chatham Street was literally crowded from one end to the other. Every window from the basement to the attic was thrown open, and filled with the beautiful heads of ladies and children, exposed to the incessant searching mist, which robbed their lovely tresses of every curl which the morning’s industry had created. But female fortitude and curiosity combined, are not to be shaken by wind and weather. For more than an hour did the throng continue to increase, until it was almost impossible to pass the street with or without a velocipede. In the meantime, the Park was also crowded, and the City Hall exhibited the appearance of a gala-day. It is needless to say that no velocipede appeared.”
Since that time down to a recent day, when M. Lallement, of France, took it in hand, all experiments to render the machine subservient to practical purposes appear to have been unsatisfactory, and it has only been used as a toy, with the modification of a third wheel. M. Lallement succeeded in affixing to the front wheel of the two-wheeled machine, treadles which should be acted upon by the feet. His success attending his endeavors to ride it, was beyond his most sanguine expectations. After becoming a thorough master of the tandem team, he appeared upon the Champs Elysées, and created a genuinefurore. People not only wondered that such a strange machine should run so swiftly, but that it should run at all upon two wheels in a line. He obtained a patent upon his velocipede, and sold it to Messrs. Michaux & Co., of Paris, who have since improved much upon it. M. Lallement, with James Carroll, of New Haven, Conn., obtained a patent in this country in 1866.
The machines now in use are so radically different from those of fifty years ago, so perfect in propelling power, so easy to ride, so swift of motion, so useful as a means of conveyance, that it seems impossible for history to repeat itself with regard to the present mania.