On ya bike! A gallery of bicycle pictures
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). Many strange experiments with velocipedes. During the first half of the…
