History
The first popular bicycles were the large penny-farthings. The pioneering inventor, W. H. J. Grout of Stoke Newington, invented a portable version in which the large front wheel could be dismantled into four pieces so that they would fit into a carrying bag.
In the 1890s, Captain Gérard of the 87th Regiment of French Infantry was an advocate of bicycles for military use. To enable his troops to operate in rough terrain, he devised a bicycle which could be folded in two and carried on the soldiers' backs; the weight was "between 22 and 26¼ lbs" (10–12 kg). The first time the Gérard portable bicycle was used, it "gave complete satisfaction and justified all expectations". The bicycles were manufactured by Charles Morel who commercialised the type.
In 1919, Charles Haskell Clark of New York City filed a patent (granted in 1921) (patent US1381281) for a portable bicycle that was easy to carry onto trains or street cars. Additional advantages of small wheels, described in the patent, were the reduced interference with skirts and the ability to dodge in and out among the crowd. The December 1919 issue of Scientific American had an article describing Mr. Clark's "city bicycle".
Read more about this topic: Portable Bicycle
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