CATALOG OF THE CYCLE COLLECTION 6 



nary, was tlie first really practical bicycle. The rider was in a posi- 

 tion to add his weight to a downward thrust on the pedals, and, 

 compared to earlier bicycles of the boneshaker type, it was a light- 

 weight, comfortable machine. It was immediately popular, and the 

 interest in bicycling increased greatly with its introduction. 



At the close of the Exposition the unsold ordinaries were taken by 

 the Baltimore firm of Timms and Lawford, and most of them were 

 soon sold to the newly organized Cunningham Co., of Boston, Mass., 

 which, in 1877, was the first bicycle importing firm in America. In 

 the same year Albert A. Pope also began importing English bicycles, 

 and in 1878 his company, the Pope Manufacturing Co., of Boston, 

 Mass., became the first manufacturer of bicycles in America. In 

 that year Pope began building bicycles under the trade name "Co- 

 lumbia" in the factory of the Weed Sewing INIachine Co. at Hartford, 

 Conn., and by 1895 all of his interests were concentrated in that city, 

 including the offices formerly located in Boston. 



In 1877 the first bicycle periodical in the United States, "The 

 American Bicycling Journal," was started at Boston by Frank W. 

 Weston, and 2 years later was merged with "The Bicycling World," 

 also of Boston. As many of the early riders of bicycles in America 

 were Bostonians, and since the first bicycle club in America was the 

 Boston Bicycle Club, jointly founded on February 11, 1878, by Charles 

 E. Pratt and Frank W. Weston, Boston soon became the center of 

 bicycling in this country. 



The ordinary, or high-wheeled bicycle with the large wheel in front, 

 was especially hazardous, as the rider was in danger of taking what 

 came to be called a "header" whenever the front wheel struck an 

 obstruction in the road. To circumvent this problem, a bicycle with 

 the large wheel in the rear was devised. Generally known as a Star, 

 its popularity never approached that of the ordinary. 



In 1881: or 1885 Lucius D. Copeland equipped one of these Stars 

 with a small steam engine and a boiler, and successfully operated the 

 machine. Two or three years later a tricycle (pi. 4, &) was similarly 

 equipped for Copeland by the Northrop Manufacturing Co., of Cam- 

 den, N. J. Articles on these machines appeared in many engineering 

 magazines of that time, and Sandford Northrop issued advertising 

 brochures publicizing the formation of his Moto-cycle Manufacturing 

 Co., but the venture proceeded no further. It was, nevertheless, an- 

 other one of the many pioneer attempts in America to produce a 

 commercially successful self-propelled vehicle. 



Although usually thought of as early automobiles, the original 

 vehicles of the German inventors Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz 

 are a part of the history of cycle development. Each produced, 

 independently of the other, a gasoline-engine-powered cycle in 1885. 



