1911] on Travelling at High Speeds on Surface of Earth. 12;> 



inventions, namely, the wheel. The wheel was made and used prob- 

 ably thousands of years before man learnt to replace muscular effort 

 by that of steam and the other forces of nature, the origin of tiie 

 wheel being absolutely lost in antiquity. 



From the models which I now show will be noticed the way in 

 which the wheel acts and how it overcomes the defect of animal loco- 

 motion, giving a rotary and continuous movement instead of a re- 

 ciprocating and variable one. At one and the same time the wheel, 

 therefore, does away with the three causes of loss shown in the dia- 

 gram as occurring with animal locomotion. The mere use of the 

 wheel has enabled man himself, by his own muscular effort, enor- 

 mously to increase his individual power of locomotion. The top curve 

 on Fig. 2 shows, in comparison with the other curves of walking and 

 running, his unpaced records on a bicycle, in using which it will 

 be realised that all three causes of loss, which occur in running and 

 walking, are obviated. You will notice a similar difference in speed as 

 the distance varies to that which is made evident in the curves for 

 walking and running. For the distance of 100 miles the average 

 speed is thus only 21 miles an hour, while that for a J mile is more 

 than 35 miles an hour. In view of the results shown by the curve, it 

 is not surprising that the bicycle has entered largely into the conditions 

 of modern life. I am not able to give you any exact figures of the 

 quantity of bicycles turned out each year in this country, but I can 

 tell you that in the Post Office alone there are now 12,000 bicycles 

 employed, and their number is always on the increase ; the distance 

 covered on them by men and boys in the year is more than 120,000,000 

 miles. 



I have not dealt with paced bicycle records, as such are not the 

 result of muscular effort, but of being pushed along by the current of 

 wind which follows up the pacing machine, such as occurs when a 

 man on a " push " bicycle is paced by a motor vehicle. In a record 

 first set up in America for 60 miles an hour on a bicycle, a man was 

 paced by a locomotive engine, running at 60 miles an hour along a 

 special track ; the rider was nearly killed when he tried to drop 

 behind, owing to the whirlwind which was being dragged along by the 

 engine ; ultimately his life was saved by his being lifted bodily off 

 his bicycle on to the locomotive. There is no record as to what be- 

 came of the bicycle. 



Curiously enough, records for ice skating and roller skating are 

 almost the same, and far below that on the bicycle, which I think 

 proves distinctly that the reciprocating movement of the limbs limits 

 man's powers, whether he is sliding on the ice or using wheels as 

 Avitli roller skates. This is so, notwithstanding that he carries along 

 with him when on a bicycle the extra weight of the bicycle, but the 

 reciprocating movement of his legs is so slow, owing to the gearing 

 up of the driving wheel, as to give him the material advantage shown 

 by the respective curves. Further, in skating, there is no doubt that 

 the movement of his limbs entails a certain amount of rising and 



