Coach
Racing
Tandem
Tandem
The Stage Coach - Old Times
Mail Coaches Racing - Something Wrong with the Opposition Coach
old times sketch
Johnson's Hobby Horse, 1818
Although pedal-operated carriages were known in the Middle Ages (during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many light vehicles of this type were introduced), the earliest form of the bicycle was the hobby-horse, or ‘dandy-horse' as it was sometimes called. This consisted of two wheels mounted in a kind of frame with a saddle for the rider, who was seated sufficiently low to be able to propel the vehicle forward by striking his feet on the ground. The earliest machines of this kind were in use about 1810 but their riders were so ridiculed that ' hobby horses' went out of use. In 1818 an improved form was patented by Baron von Draisin France, and brought over to England in the same year by Denis Johnson, a coachmaker of Long Acre, who called it the‘pedestrian curricle.’ It consisted of a wooden bar, or back-bone, mounted on two wheels, the front one being pivoted in a fork to allow the machine to be steered and balanced. The machine was propelled by the rider leaning his elbows on a padded support, and alternately striking the road with his feet. In this way, a speed of 10 miles an hour sometimes could be maintained on the level. Riders generally 'coasted' downhills, but when a hill had to be ascended the machine was carried on the rider's shoulders! A hobby-horse weighed about 50 pounds and cost about £10.
'Bone-shaker' bicycle, 1869
In 1839 Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a blacksmith of Courthill, Dumfriesshire, fitted pedals and cranks to the rear wheel, but again the machine was a failure. About 1864 Pierre Lallement, of Paris, adopted a front-wheel drive by fitting cranks and pedals, and, strange to say, this ‘bone-shaker,' as it was called, became the first popular bicycle The back-bone was of solid iron, and the wooden wheels had iron tires. It was introduced into England in 1868, and large numbers were made and used. In 1869 wire-spoked wheels were introduced by E.A.Cowper, and in the following year solid rubber tyres,and ball bearings in 1878.
Lawson's Bicyclette, 1879
The famous Beeton Humber bicycle ordinary, 1884
The Man-drawn sledge
Sledges have played an important part in polar exploration, and were used,in varying degree, by Sir W.E.Parry , Sir John Franklin, and other early explorers of the Arctic.
A Palanquin in India
There have been various modifications of the litter, familiar examples being the funeral bier and the modern stretcher. Another development is the palanquin, a distinctive form of transport in the East.
Velocipede