18 Mr. C. Vernon Boys [Marcli 7, 



It is true that in general no harm is done, but such a fall may bring 

 any one to a sudden and horrible end. 



Many have attempted, while still retaining the advantage of the 

 bicycle, to make these involuntary headers impossible by modifying 

 in some way its construction. One of the earliest attempts in this 

 direction is well named the " Extraordinary." On it the rider is placed 

 much further behind the main wheel, but can still employ his weight 

 to advantage, as the treadles are placed below him and are connected 

 by levers with the cranks. In another safety bicycle a third wheel 

 is carried in front just above the ground, so as to resist at once any 

 tendency to tilt forward. In another type much smaller wheels are 

 employed, and the feet, now nearer the ground, are connected with 

 the cranks by levers in the " Facile," or by a hanging pedal in the " Sun 

 and Planet." There is a bicycle with two large wheels, one in front 

 of the other, which two can ride, which should be both safe and 

 rapid. 



By far the most curious and utterly unintelligible of all machines 

 of the bicycle type is Mr. Burstow's " Centre-cycle." So incompre- 

 hensible did this machine seem to me that I took the trouble one after- 

 noon last week to ride to Horsham to see it in its native place. A 

 careful examination has convinced me that it is not only correct in its 

 design but that it is in many respects the most wonderful cycle at 

 present made. 



There is on the table a model Plympton skate. When this is level 

 it runs straight, when inclined either way it wheels around in a 

 manner that was so familiar a few years ago. The four wheels of the 

 Centre-cycle are a counterpart of the four wheels of the skate : 

 when the frame leans either way tbey turn in an appropriate manner, 

 or, conversely, when they turn the machine leans in the proper 

 direction. It might be thought that a thing with five wheels was 

 more nearly allied to a tricycle than to a bicycle, but this is not so, 

 for the Centre-cycle, when ridden skilfully, has rarely more than 

 one wheel on the ground. The leaning to one side in turning a 

 corner (tricycles, unfortunately, must remain upright) and the general 

 action is essentially that of a bicycle. The great peculiarity of this 

 machine is the power that the rider possesses of raising or lowering 

 any wheel he pleases. Now that I have mounted it you will see that 

 I can rest on one, three, four or five wheels, as I please. In conse- 

 quence of this power of lifting the wheels, a rider can travel over an 

 umbrella without touching it, lifting the wheels as they approach and 

 dropping them as they pass, after the manner of a caterpillar. 



Till a few years ago the bicycle was the only velocipede which 

 was worthy of the name. Inventive genius and mechanical skill have 

 given rise to a series of machines on three wheels on which any one 

 can at once sit at ease, and which require but little skill in their 

 management. Men who do not care to risk their necks at the giddy 

 height of the bicyclist, ladies, to whom the ordinary bicycle presents 

 difficulties which they cannot well surmount, each find in the tricycle 



