Invention
The earliest forebears of the bicycle were velocipedes, and included many human-powered vehicles. One, the scooter-like dandy horse or celerifere of the French Comte de Sivrac, dating to 1790, was long cited as the earliest bicycle. Most historians now believe these unsteerable hobby-horses probably never existed, but were made up by Louis Baudry de Saunier, a 19th-century French bicycle historian.
The most likely originator of the bicycle was the German Baron Karl von Drais, who rode his 1816 machine while collecting taxes from his tenants. He patented his draisine, a pushbike powered by the action of the rider's feet pushing against the ground.
Read more about this topic: French Bicycle Industry
Famous quotes containing the word invention:
“His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very first order; his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a Newton, Bacon, or Locke; and as far as he saw, no judgment was ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little aided by invention or imagination, but sure in conclusion.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Correspondences are like smallclothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.”
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)
“Heredity is a strong factor, even in architecture. Necessity first mothered invention. Now invention has little ones of her own, and they look just like grandma.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)