EVOLUTION OF THE CYCLE.
In praise of Cycling--Number of Cycles in Use--Medical Opinions--
Pioneers in the Invention--James Starley--Cycling Tours.
Sir Walter Scott once told a friend that if he did not see the heather
once a year he would die. He saw it much oftener than once a year. When
the building and planting of Abbotsford had become a passion with him,
and when the vacation came round in connection with his duties in the
Court of Session, he would not stay ten minutes longer in Edinburgh than
he could help. Sometimes his carriage would be waiting in Parliament
Square to bear him off as swiftly as possible to Abbotsford. John Locke
says there is a good vein of poetry buried in the breast of most
business men; there is at least in the breast of most men, strong or
latent, a longing, a passion for freedom, for change. When the buds
swell and burst; when the May-blossom breaks forth on the hawthorn, and
makes a spring snowstorm in the valley; when the cuckoo is heard, and
the lark rains down his drops of melody above the springing clods; when
the lambs gambol in the green fields, and the hives are murmurous with
their drowsy insect hum--the awakening comes in man, too, for freedom,
freshness, change. They are happy who can enjoy such, and be rested and
refreshed; for millions are chained to the oar, and know not what they
miss, and millions more have not had their eyes or their desires
awakened to what they miss. Lowell expresses the feeling:
What man would live coffined with brick and stone,
Imprisoned from the healing touch of air,
And cramped with selfish landmarks everywhere,
When all before him stretches, furrowless and lone,
The unmapped prairie none can fence or own?
What man would read and read the self-same faces,
And like the marbles which the windmill grinds,
Rub smooth for ever with the same smooth minds,
This year retracing last year's, every year's, dull traces,
When there are woods and unpenfolded spaces?
* * * * *
To change and change is life, to move and never rest:
Not what we are, but what we hope, is best.
The wild, free woods make no man halt or blind;
Cities rob men of eyes and hands and feet.
We want, then, to recover our eyes, and hands, and feet, remembering the
story of eyes and no eyes. For this end, few things are better than a
day now and then in the open air, in order to bring a man to himself.
The best stimulant in the world is mountain air, and the grandest
restorative music the rhythmic beat of the waves along the shore.
The cyclist covers a wonderful stretch of country, going and returning,
and comes back refreshed too, though tired, thinking that nobody in the
universe can have had a better or pleasanter holiday than he has
enjoyed. He has whizzed along leafy lanes, with glimpses of running
streams to right and left; he has heard the musical monotony of the hill
burns as he rested on the bridge; he has awakened sleepy villages, and
enjoyed his repasts at country inns. And so the cyclist has a ready
power to give himself the requisite and healthful change of scene.
CYCLING.
The pastime of cycling, at first only patronised by athletic youth, has
now spread to every class of the community. The vast improvement in
machines, and the health and exhilaration to be gained by the exercise,
have had much to do with its popularity alike with aristocracy and
democracy. Like golf, it has come to stay, although many who take
cycling up for amusement will drop it again as they would do anything
else. But there will always remain a strong and increasing contingent,
fully aware, by practical experience, of its health and pleasure giving
powers, who will place it second to no existing recreation. And so the
cyclist gets gleams and glances of beauty from many a nook and corner of
the land, where railway, coach, or his unaided pedestrian powers would
never carry him. It has widened a twenty-mile radius to a forty-mile
radius, and increased man's locomotive powers threefold. Let no one
imagine that there is not a considerable amount of exertion and fatigue,
and sometimes hardship. But it is of a wholesome kind, when kept within
limits, and physically, morally, and socially, the benefits that cycling
confers on the men of the present day are almost unbounded.
Truly, we have here a great leveller; as one says: 'It puts the poor man
on a level with the rich, enabling him to "sing the song of the open
road" as freely as the millionaire, and to widen his knowledge by
visiting the regions near to or far from his home, observing how other
men live. He could not afford a railway journey and sojourn in these
places, and he could not walk through them without tiring sufficiently
to destroy in a measure the pleasure which he sought. But he can ride
through twenty, thirty, fifty, even seventy miles of country in a day,
without serious fatigue, and with no expense save his board and
lodging.' This is very well put. Another enthusiast has said: 'If you
want to come as near flying as we are likely to get in this generation,
learn to ride on a pneumatic bicycle.' 'Sum up,' says another, 'when
summer is done, all the glorious days you have had, the splendid bits of
scenery which have become a possession for ever, your adventures worth
telling, and see how you have been gladdened and enriched.'
An enthusiastic journalist who had been burning the candle at both ends
betook himself to the wheel, and found it of so much service to body and
mind that he straightway, in the columns of his newspaper, began to
advise the whole world to learn the bicycle. He could hardly tell the
difference it had made to his feelings and general health, and he knew
of no exercise which brought so easily such a universal return in good
health, good spirits, and amusement. Mr G. Lacy Hillier, of the
Badminton volume on Cycling, confirms this. The cyclist seems to enter
into the spirit of Emerson's saying as thoroughly as Thoreau might have
done: 'Give me health and a day, and I will make the pomp of empires
ridiculous.' Many overdo the exercise, then renounce it, or give it a
bad name; others, by over-rapid riding in towns, make themselves public
nuisances, and vastly increase the dangers of overcrowded streets. The
sensible cyclist rides for health, increase of knowledge, and amusement.
Though at one time Mr Ruskin was prepared to spend all his best bad
language in abusing the wheel, the world has gone its own way, and the
careering multitudes in Battersea Park and elsewhere, on country and
suburban roads, in crowded towns, have been the means of creating new
manufactures, which have vastly benefited our home industries. Mr H. J.
Lawson, inventor of the rear-driving safety, lately estimated the annual
output of cycles at over a million, and the money spent at over ten
millions. But in the absence of statistics this is only guesswork. The
periodical called _Invention_ has stated that in 1884 there were 8
bicycle factories, which turned out 6000 machines. In 1895 there were
about 400 factories, with an estimated output of 650,000 bicycles. The
bicycle tax in France is said to yield not less than L80,000 a year. In
the United States, where cycling has become a greater craze than with
us, two hundred and fifty thousand cycles at least were purchased in
1894; in 1895 more than four hundred thousand changed hands. When the
proposal was made some time ago to impose a tax on cycles, it was
calculated that there were at least eight hundred thousand riders in the
United Kingdom. Now the number is estimated at over a million. The past
few seasons have witnessed quite a 'boom' in cycling and a great
increase in the number of riders. Ladies have taken more rapidly to the
pastime in America and France than in England. The rubber and then the
pneumatic or inflated tyre have wrought a marvellous revolution; the
high 'ordinary,' the tricycle, and the heavy 'solid,' and even the
'cushion,' have in most cases been relegated to the home of old iron.
The Pneumatic Tyre Company, with a capital of four millions sterling,
when in full swing, turns out twenty-five thousand tyres per week. The
profits of this concern in 1896 were at the rate of L432,000 a year.
Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, London, and other towns, have
largely benefited by the cycle trade.
Sir B. W. Richardson has often called attention to the benefit of
cycling in the case of dwellers in towns. Dr Turner finds that nothing
neutralises better the poison introduced into the blood through faulty
digestion than gentle and continued exercise on the wheel. Mr A. J.
Watson, the English amateur one-mile and five-mile champion in 1895,
declared that he never suffered from any ill effects, save perhaps
during the hard days in winter, when prevented from riding. Dr Andrew
Wilson once quoted a budget of correspondence from ladies who had tried
the wheel, all of which was in the same direction, provided that
overstrain was avoided. Where the heart is weak, cycling should be left
alone. The muscles of the legs are developed and the circumference of
the chest increased in the case of healthy riders.
Here are a few hints by a medical man: 'Never ride within half an hour
of a meal, either before or after. Wheel the machine up any hill the
mounting of which on the wheel causes any real effort. See that the
clothing round the stomach, neck, and chest is loose. Have the
handle-bar sufficiently raised to prevent stooping. Be as sparing as
possible of taking fluids during a long ride. Unless the wind, road,
&c., be favourable, never ride more than ten miles an hour, save for
very short distances, and never smoke while riding.'
The cycle as we know it did not burst upon the world in all its present
completeness, but has been a gradual evolution, the work of many a busy
hand and brain, guided by experience. As far back as 1767 we find that
Richard Lovell Edgeworth had something of the nature of a velocipede;
and about the same date, William Murdoch, inventor of gas for
illuminating purposes, had a wooden horse of his own invention upon
which he rode to school at Cumnock.
The French appear to be entitled to whatever of credit attaches to the
original invention of the hobby-horse, a miserable steed at best, which
wore out the toes of a pair of boots at every journey. M. Blanchard, the
celebrated aeronaut, and M. Masurier conjointly manufactured the first
of these machines in 1779, which was then described as 'a wonder which
drove all Paris mad.' The Dandy-horse of 1818, the two wheels on which
the rider sat astride, tipping the ground with his feet in order to
propel the machine, was laughed out of existence. In 1840, a blacksmith
named Kirkpatrick Macmillan, of Courthill, parish of Keir,
Dumfriesshire, made a cycle on which he rode to Glasgow, and caused a
big sensation on the way. This worthy man died in 1878, aged 68. The
notable fact regarding Macmillan's cycle is, that he had adapted cranks
and levers to the old dandy or hobby-horse. Gavin Dalziel, of
Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, had a bicycle of his own invention in daily use
in 1846. The French are probably justified, moreover, in claiming as
their own the development of the crude invention into the present
velocipede, for, in 1862, a M. Riviere, a French subject residing in
England, deposited in the British Patent Office a minute specification
of a bicycle. His description was, however, unaccompanied by any drawing
or sketch, and he seems to have taken no further steps in the matter
than to register a theory which he never carried into practice.
Subsequently, the bicycle was re-invented by the French and by the
Americans almost simultaneously, and indeed, both nations claim priority
in introducing it. It came into public notoriety at the French
International Exhibition of 1867, from which time the rage for them
gradually developed itself, until in 1869 Paris became enthusiastic over
velocipedes. Extensive foundries were soon established in Paris for the
sole purpose of supplying the ironwork, while some scores of large
manufactories taxed their utmost resources to meet the daily increasing
demand for these vehicles.
There was a revival of cycling between 1867-69. An ingenious Frenchman,
M. Michaux, had some years before fitted pedals and a transverse handle
to the front wheel of what came to be irreverently known as the
'bone-shaker.' This embryo bicycle had a considerable vogue, and was
introduced to Mr Charles Spencer's gymnasium in London in 1868. Spencer
was in Paris in 1868, in company with Mr R. Turner, representative of
the Coventry Machinists' Company, and they were each admiring the
graceful evolutions of Henri Tascard on his velocipede over the broad
asphalt paths of the Luxemburg Gardens. 'Charlie, do you think you could
do that?' said Turner. Spencer said he thought he would have a trial,
and would take home a machine that very night. He accordingly brought
over a machine to London, practised riding stealthily in some of the
most out-of-the-way London streets, and soon gained sufficient
confidence to appear in public. Mr John Mayall, jun., photographer,
Regent Street, witnessed the arrival of one of the first bicycles at
Spencer's gymnasium, in Old Street, St Luke's. 'It produced but little
impression upon me,' he says, 'and certainly did not strike me as being
a new means of locomotion. A slender young man, whom I soon came to know
as Mr Turner of Paris, followed the packing-case and superintended its
opening. The gymnasium was cleared, Mr Turner took off his coat, grasped
the handles of the machine, and, with a short run, to my intense
surprise, vaulted on to it, and putting his feet on the treadle made the
circuit of the room. We were some half-a-dozen spectators, and I shall
never forget our astonishment at the sight of Mr Turner whirling himself
round the room--sitting on a bar above a pair of wheels in a line, that
ought, as we inadvertently supposed, to fall down as soon as he jumped
off the ground.'
It is almost laughable, now, to read how Spencer at first always rode on
the pavement, and how politely everybody cleared out of his way. Even
Policeman X helped to make a passage for him. Some wiseacre, on being
quizzed as to the uses of this strange new machine, would reply, 'Why,
it is a machine for measuring roads, of course;' and a street arab would
shout, 'Oh, crikey, Bill, 'ere's a lark. A swell a ridin' on two
wheels. Mind how you fall, sir,' &c. Spencer's speed at first was but
five miles an hour. Soon there were many inquiries for this wonderful
new aid to locomotion. Spencer and Turner entered heartily into the
business. An order for 500 machines was given to the Coventry
Machinists' Company in the end of 1868. This was the firm with which Mr
James Starley, inventor of the 'Coventry Tricycle,' was connected, and
this order helped the start of what has grown to be an enormous and
beneficial industry to the town of Coventry.
The account of feats of long-distance riding, of forty and fifty miles a
day, got abroad--the feat by Turner, Spencer, and Mayall particularly,
in riding to Brighton and back in a day, in February 1869, further
popularised cycling. Charles Dickens and James Payn were amongst those
who were bitten by the velocipede 'mania.'
Yet the bone-shaker craze might have died a natural death but for the
introduction of the rubber tyre and other improvements. Mr James
Starley, of Coventry, through whose inventive genius the tricycle was
evolved from the bicycle, was also an improver and pioneer. Starley says
of his improvements: 'I regarded the rider as the motive force; and
believing it absolutely necessary that he should be so placed that he
could exert the greatest amount of power on his pedals, with the least
amount of fatigue to himself--believing, also, that the machine of the
future must be so made that such essentials as the crank-shaft, pedals,
seat, and handles could easily be made adjustable--I decided to change
my shape, make my wheels of a good rolling size, place my crank-shaft as
near the ground as safety would permit, connect my back wheel with my
crank by means of a chain, so that the gear might be adjusted and varied
at pleasure, and a short, strong man could ride with a fifty, a sixty, a
seventy, or even a higher gear, while a tall, weak man could ride with a
lower gear than the short, strong one; to give my saddle a vertical
adjustment so that it could be raised or lowered at will; so to place my
handles that they could be set forward or backward, raised or lowered,
as might be desired; and finally, to make it impossible for the
pedalling to interfere with the steering.' In the 'Rover' bicycle he
gave an impetus to the early history of the machine, which has been
crowned in the pneumatic tyre, the invention of John Boyd Dunlop, born
at Dreghorn, Ayrshire, in 1840. Mr Dunlop was engaged as a veterinary
surgeon near Belfast, where he built himself an air-wheel from ordinary
thin rubber sheets, with rubber valve and plug. Mr C. K. Welch followed
with the detachable tyre. The big, ungainly looking wheels were at first
laughed at, but when pneumatic tyred machines won race after race, they
became the rage. And when the company formed to make the Dunlop tyre
sold their interest in the concern, in 1896 it was worth about
L3,000,000. The capital originally subscribed was L260,000, and L658,000
had been paid in dividends.
A cycling tour is health-giving and enjoyable when gone about rationally
and prudently. It is pleasant to plan, and no less so to carry out, as
it is always the unexpected which happens. There are halts by the
wayside, conversations with rustics, fine views; and every part of the
brain and blood is oxygenated, giving that kind of wholesome
intoxication which Thoreau said he gained by living in the open air.
One's own country is explored as it has never been explored before. Some
wheelmen have been credited with seven and eight thousand miles in a
single season. Others, more ambitious, have made a track round the
globe. Mr Thomas Stevens, starting from San Francisco in April 1884,
occupied three years in going round the world. Mr T. Allen and Mr L.
Sachtleben, two American students, as a practical finish to a
theoretical education, occupied three years in riding round the
world--15,404 miles on the wheel. They climbed Mount Ararat by the way,
and interviewed Li Hung Chang, the Chinese viceroy. The wheel ridden by
these 'foreign devils' was described by one Chinaman as 'a little mule
that you drive by the ears, and kick in the sides to make him go.'
Mr Frank G. Lenz, who started from America in June 1892 to ride round
the world, was unfortunately killed by six Kurds, sixty-five miles from
Erzeroum, between the villages of Kurtali and Dahar, on May 10, 1894.
There have been many interesting shorter rides. Mr Walter Goddard of
Leeds, and Mr James Edmund of Brixton, started from London and rode
entirely round Europe on wheels; Mr Hugh Callan rode from Glasgow to the
river Jordan; Mr R. L. Jefferson, in 1894, rode from London to
Constantinople, between March 10 and May 19. In 1895 the same gentleman
rode from London to Moscow, 4281 miles, and had nothing good to say of
Russian inns or roads. A lady of sixty has done seventy miles in one
day; while an English lady tourist did twelve hundred miles in her
various ups and downs between London and Glasgow during one holiday.
The lighter the machine, the more expensive it is. Racing-machines are
built as light as twenty pounds in weight. Some of the swiftest
road-riders patronise machines of twenty-six or twenty-seven pounds; but
for all-round work, one of thirty-three pounds, without lamp or bell, is
a good average machine. As to speed, we have had 460 miles in the
twenty-four hours on the racing-track, and 377 miles on the road. Huret,
a French rider, has done 515 miles between one midnight and another; the
Swiss cyclist Lesna has done 28 miles an hour; while Mr Mills and Mr T.
A. Edge, in a ride from Land's End to John o' Groat's on a tandem, beat
all previous records, doing the journey in three days four hours and
forty-six minutes.
A very sensible American rider, when on tour, starts shortly after
breakfast, and with a brief rest for lunch, has his day's work of about
fifty miles over by four P.M. Then he changes underclothing--a most
important and never-to-be-forgotten matter--has dinner, and an enjoyable
ramble over the town or village where he stays over-night. But he is a
luxurious dog, and not many will carry such an abundant kit in the
triangular bag below the handle bar. Imagine three light outing shirts,
three suits, gauze underclothing, a dark flannel bicycle suit, laced
tanned gaiters, light-weight rubber coat, comb; clothes, hair, and tooth
brushes; soap and towel, writing-pad and pencil, map and matches, and
tool bag! Many a cyclist carries a hand camera, and brings home a
permanent record of his journeys.
It has been well said that many a boy will start in life with a more
vigorous constitution because of the bicycle, and many a man who is
growing old too fast by neglect of active exercise will find himself
rejuvenated by the same agency. Only let the getting over a certain
distance within a certain time not be the main object. And winter
riding, when the roads permit, need not be neglected, for nothing is
more invigorating than a winter ride. The doctors tell us that as long
as one can ride with the mouth shut, the heart is all right. A fillip
should be given to the appetite; whenever this is destroyed, and
sleeplessness ensues, cycling is being overdone.
Cycling, of course, as we have already said, is not all pleasure or
romance. There is a considerable amount of hard work, with head-winds,
rain, mud, hills, and misadventures through punctures of the tyre. This
last may happen at the most inopportune time; but the cyclist is
generally a philosopher, and sets about his repairs with a cool and easy
mind.
A word in closing about accidents, which are often due to carelessness
and recklessness. A cyclist has no right to ride at ten or fourteen
miles an hour in a crowded thoroughfare. He takes his life--and other
people's!--in his hands if he does so. No less is caution needed on
hills, the twists and turns in which are unseen or unfamiliar, and where
the bottom of the incline cannot be seen. As the saying goes, 'Better be
a coward for half an hour than a corpse for the rest of your lifetime.'
But experience is the best guide, and no hard-and-fast rules can be laid
down for exceptional circumstances.
[Illustration: The Dandy-horse.]
[Illustration]