Bicycles are a common motif in many collections of old photos. In the 1800s “velocipedes” were an exciting innovation, with inventors of all stripes applying their fertile brains to create a self-powered, non-polluting alternative to the horse for personal transport.

After many strange experiments, the conventional bicycle emerged in, more or less, the form we know it today. Here are some examples of early ideas from inventive correspondents to 1860s issues of the magazine The English Mechanic and Mirror of Science (scanned from my collection).

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During the first half of the 20th century, before the rise of the cheap, mass-produced motor car, the bicycle was exceedingly common on Australia’s urban roads as a means of getting to and form work, in particular

Below are some samples of bicycle-related photos from my collection.

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Velocipedia: some ancestors of the bicycle

Des Butler’s memories of cycles and steam