| Innovation |
Year |
Country |
Details |
| |
1817 |
Germany |
| Baron
Von Drais invents the "running machine" or
Laufmaschine. Patented the following year.
Known in various forms as :
Draisine, Draisienne, Velocipede. English
version was the Hobby Horse (Denis Johnson).
All have two, in-line wheels and the ability
to steer. |
|
| Hand
Drive |
1821 |
England |
| Louis
Gompertz adds a hand-driven, ratchet mechanism
to the front wheel of a Hobby Horse but the
innovation, as with Drais' was never really
followed up. |
|
| |
1839-1840 |
Scotland |
| Kirkpatrick
Macmillan is traditionally credited with a
machine in which power was supplied to the
back wheel via rods connected to treadle-type
pedals. Thomas McCall marketed copies; an
1845 version is in the Dumfries Museum. It
is questionable whether significant progress
resulted from either. |
|
| Rear-Wheel-Drive
Bicycle |
1843 |
France |
| Alexandre
Lefebvre is credited with a rear-drive machine;
he took it to America twenty years later and
it still exists in the "History San Jose"
museum (the earliest extant bicycle?). |
|
| Pneumatic
Tire |
1845 |
England |
| R.
W. Thompson invents the pneumatic tire but
with no commercial follow-up. |
|
| Treadle
Drive |
1847 |
Scotland |
| Gavin
Dalzell builds a two-wheeled hobbyhorse with
a treadle-drive, possibly copied from the
Macmillan design. |
|
| Crank-Driven
4-Wheeler |
1851 |
England |
| Willard
Sawyer exhibits his four-wheeled, crank-driven
vehicle at the Great Exhibition and subsequently
becomes established as a Velocipede manufacturer. |
|
| Boneshaker
Bicycle |
1864 |
France |
| J. Townsend
Trench documents his purchase of a velocipede
from the Michaux family. Possibly the first
record of a "production" front wheel, pedal-driven
bicycle (but note that it was not presented
untill 1895). This style became known as the
"Boneshaker". Historians still debate the
claim of Pierre Lallement that he had previously
invented the first pedal-driven machine. |
|
| |
1866 |
USA |
| Lallement,
now in the USA, gets the backing of an investor,
James Carroll, and their patent application
is granted; probably the world's first public
record of the pedal-powered two-wheeler. |
|
| |
1870 |
England |
| James
Starley products the "Ariel" High Wheeler
(aka "Ordinary" or "Penny Farthing"). Later
versions had front wheel sizes of upto 5 feet. |
|
| Wire-Spoked
Wheel |
1870 |
England |
| W.
H. J. Grout patents the radially spoked, nipple
adjusted bicycle wheel (unlike prior load-bearing
wheels). Some credit Meyer with this design
two years previosly. |
|
| Ball
Bearings |
1872 |
German |
| Friedrich
Fischer first mass-produces steel ball bearings,
patented by Jules Suriray in 1869. |
|
| Caliper
Brake |
1876 |
England |
| Browett
and Harrison patent an early caliper brake. |
|
| Differential
Gear |
1877 |
England |
| James
Starley patent a differential gear; probably
the first for a bicycle but the principle
was not new. |
|
| Internal
Hub Gearings |
1878 |
England |
| Scott
and Phillott patent the first practicable
epicyclic change-speed gear fitted into the
hub of a front-driving bicycle. |
|
| Folding
Highwheeler |
1878 |
England |
| Grout
patents a folding High Wheeler, the first
"portable" bicycle. |
|
| |
1879 |
England |
| Henry
J. Lawson patents a rear wheel, chain-driven
safety bicycle, the "Bicyclette" (his earlier
models were lever driven). |
|
| Chain |
1880 |
England |
| Thomas
Humber adapts the block chain for use with
his range of bicycles. |
|
| Safety
Bicycle |
1885 |
England |
| John
Kemp Starley (James Starley's nephew) markets
the revolutionary Safety Bicycle (the "Rover")
with a chain/rear-sprocket drive and tangentially-spoked,
similar sized wheels. Includes many of the
major features of modern bicycles. |
|
| Seamless
Tubing |
1886 |
Germany |
| The
Mannessman brothers are credited with the
invention of the process to manufacture seamless
steel tubing. |
|
| |
1888 |
Scotland |
| Commercial
development of the pneumatic bicycle tire
by Dr. John Boyd Dunlop. |
|
| |
1890s |
France |
| Cycles
Aluminium becomes one of the earliest manufacturers
of an aluminium bicycle. |
|
| Derailleur |
1896 |
England |
| E.
H. Hodgkinson patents a 3-speed Gradient gear,
a pre-cursor of the modern derailleur. |
|
| Internal
Hub Gearing |
1896 |
England |
| William
Reilly patents a two-speed hub gear. His later
3-speed version was put into production by
Sturmey Archer in 1902. |
|
| Butted
Frame Tubes |
1897 |
England |
| Alfred
M. Reynolds takes out a patent on "butted"
steel bicycle tubes. |
|
| Freewheel |
1898 |
Germany |
| First
major commercialization of the freewheel by
Ernst Sachs. William Van Anden had obtained
the first freewheel patent in 1869. |
|
| |
1910 |
France |
| The
first, easy-to-use derailleur is invented
by Paul de Vivie (Velocio) that shifted among
four gears at the pedals. |
|
| Recumbent |
1914 |
France |
| Peugeot
markets their production recumbent bicycle.
Charles Challand had exhibited his "Horizontal
Bicyclette Noemale" in Geneva in 1895. |
|
| Dual-Suspension
Mountain Bike |
1915 |
Italy |
| Bianchi
produced a folding bicycle for the Italian
Army with telescoping seatstays, a leaf spring
at the bottom bracket, a spring fork and large
profile pneumatic tires. Bianchi now calls
it the first dual suspension mountain bike!
There are earlier versions of military folding
bicycles. |
|
| |
1930 |
Italy |
| Tullio
Campagnolo intriduces the bicycles hub quick-release. |
|
| Recumbent |
1932 |
France |
| Charles
Mochet designs the Velocar, a recumbent bicycle
on which Francois Faure breaks both the mile
and kilometer records. |
|
| |
1933-1934 |
USA |
| Introduction
by Schwinn of the balloon tire and "streamlined"
bikes which leads to rugged bikes that can
take the abuse of teenage boys and which set
a forty-year trend. |
|
| Mountain
Bike |
1938 |
USA |
| Schwinn
markets the "Fore-wheel" brake, "Cantilever
Frame" and the "Spring Fork". Resulted in
what was to be the Grandfather of today's
mountain bikes. |
|
| Folding
Bicycle |
1939 |
France |
| A.
J. Marcelin petents "Le Petit Bi", a 16-inch
wheeled folding bicycle, remarkably similar
to the Moulton and Bickerton of later years. |
|
| Shifter |
1946 |
Italy |
| Campagnolo
markets the dual-rod "Cambio Corsa" gear shifter
(over ten years after the prototype) widely
used for atleast a decade. |
|
| Index
Shifting |
1949 |
England |
| The
Hercules Herailleur is launched; a rear derailleur
with indexed shift levers. Marketed for five
years. |
|
| Derailleur |
1951 |
Italy |
|