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VAUGHAIST, ROBERT. 



VAUGHAN", Rev. ROBEET, D. D., an Eng- 

 lish clergyman, editor, and historian, born in 

 1795 ; died in London, June 20, 1868. He was 

 educated for the ministry at Bristol College, 

 was for six years pastor at Worcester, and was 

 subsequently settled as minister of the Inde- 

 pendent chapel, at Kensington. Soon after 

 the organization of the London University, he 

 was appointed Professor of Ancient and Mod- 

 ern History in that institution. In 1843, on 

 the removal of the Independent College from 

 Blackburn to Manchester, he was elected its 

 president, and for fifteen years also filled the 

 chair of Professor of Theology. In 1857 he 

 resigned on account of failing health. In 1844 

 he founded the British Quarterly Review, 

 of which he continued to be the editor until 

 1867, when he retired from it, and a purse was 

 made up for him in testimony of his great ser- 

 vices to literature and religion in its manage- 

 ment. During all this period he was a diligent 

 student and a careful and laborious writer on 

 historical subjects. His principal works are : 

 " Life and Opinions of John de Wycliffe, D. D.," 

 2 vols., 1828 ; " John de Wycliffe, a Monograph, 

 with some Account of the Wycliffe MSS.," 

 1853, a revision of the preceding ; " Memorials 

 of the Stuart Dynasty," 2 vols., 8vo, 1831 ; 

 "Causes of the Corruption of Christianity," 

 8vo, 1834 ; " Thoughts on the Past and Present 

 Religious Parties in England," 12mo, 1838; 

 "The Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell," 2 

 vols., 8vo, 1838; "History of England under 

 the House of Stuart," 2 vols., 8vo, 1840 ; " His- 

 tory of Revolutions in England," in 3 vols., 

 1859-1861-1863; "Memorial of English Non- 

 Conformity: a Treatise on Ritualism and 

 Family Prayers," 1865; besides several smaller 

 works. His " History of Revolutions " was his 

 most elaborate work, and he had devoted 

 many years to its preparation. At the time 

 of his death, he was pastor at Torquay, to 

 which place he had removed in 1867. 



VELOCIPEDE, THE. Within the last few 

 months, the velocipede, introduced from Paris, 

 has in this country attracted much attention. 

 The original French machine has been im- 

 proved in design and detail. Patent upon 

 patent has been issued, and there is hardly 

 now a city in which there are not schools to 

 teach velocipede riding, and courses and races 

 for prizes. There are velocipedes of one, two, 

 three, and four wheels, driven by foot-cranks, 

 hand-cranks, by gears, by straps, or, like the 

 Rantoone of three wheels, a sort of spike ar- 

 rangement of wheels, with cranks on the 

 double-wheeled axle actuated by either hands 

 or feet, or by both the steering being done 

 by a gear arrangement in one of the handles, 

 and turning the leading wheel. But the ve- 

 locipede par excellence, or the French one, is a 

 two-wheeled machine, a bicycle, as shown in 

 the cut, in which motion is given by the feet 

 working cranks on the forward axle, and guid- 

 ance and stability secured by the handle con- 

 trolling the front wheel. Few, however old, 



VELOCIPEDE, THE. 



but can recollect velocipedes, as machines or 

 playthings of their childhood, and even two- 

 wheeled velocipedes similar in general appear- 

 ance to the present machines. The propulsion 



THE *' PICKERING. 



was not by a crank, but by the toes touching 

 the ground. The wheels supported the weight 

 of the body, and with very little fatigue the 

 legs were able to accomplish the work of pro- 

 pelling the machine. In the Engineer and 

 Architect's Journal, some twenty-five years 

 ago, appeared a design for a horse-velocipede 

 for railroads, in which the animal could be sup- 

 ported in slings attached to a car, with his legs 

 just touching the ground. These two-wheeled 

 man-velocipedes were sometimes made very 

 light, some eighteen to twenty pounds, and on 

 good flat roads as many as thirteen miles 

 have been run in an hour ; but these machines 

 have been briefly popular, and only the three- 

 wheeled plaything for children has kept a 

 permanent position. In 1830, M. Dreuze, a 

 public postal functionary in France, got up a 

 two-wheeled machine, in which the feet did 

 not touch the ground, but communicated the 

 motion directly to the axles of the wheels, and 

 stability and direction were given by the arms. 

 M. Dreuze distributed these machines among 

 the postmen of the rural districts, and it was 

 expected that they would be able to go their 

 rounds with greater dispatch, and much less 

 fatigue, but the winter came with its snow and 

 ice, and the velocipedes were laid up, and 

 made no further public appearance until about 

 the time of the last Paris Exposition, when they 

 were again resuscitated, became a fashion, and 

 spread through the provinces. Courses were 

 set up, with the usual accompaniments of horse- 

 racing, purses and betting. 



The average length of the courses are one 

 thousand eight hundred metres, nearly a mile 

 and a furlong. At Enghein this distance was 

 traversed in four minutes and twenty-five 

 seconds by a velocipede with two wheels, and 

 six minutes and twenty-eight seconds by a 

 three- wheeled velocipede. 



Greater speed was attained at St. Cloud, 

 when the course of two thousand four hundred 

 metres, almost equivalent to a mile and a half, 



