FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE 



facilitate this end. At first the machine promised to 

 become popular, but it was soon ridiculed out of court. 



Something like twenty years later — that is to say 

 about the year 1840 — a treadle-bicycle was invented by 

 Kirkpatrick MacMillan, an English blacksmith. The 

 machine did not become popular, however, and it 

 was not until simple cranks were fitted to the front 

 wheel of the bicycle that this form of vehicle came into 

 anything like general use. This very simple expedient 

 was first suggested, seemingly, by Pierre Lallament, 

 a Frenchman, in 1866. His machine came to be 

 known in England as the bone shaker, and doubtless 

 it deserved its name, for as yet neither the wire sus- 

 pension wheel nor the rubber tire had been invented. 

 Both these improvements were quickly introduced, 

 however; the suspension wheel by Mr. E. A. Cowper, 

 in 1868. The first rubber tires, used about 1870, 

 were solid, and it was not until 1888 that the Irishman, 

 Mr. J. B. Dunlap, introduced the pneumatic tire. 

 Meantime the geared bicycle, with which every one 

 is nowadays familiar, had been introduced in 1879 by 

 Mr. H. J. Lawson and brought to the familiar form 

 of the ''safety** in 1885 by Mr. Starley. The combi- 

 nation of low wheels geared to any desired speed with 

 pneumatic tires was the finishing stroke. 



The problem of making the bicycle a relatively speedy 

 vehicle had indeed been solved by the use of a large 

 wheel — sometimes sixty inches in diameter — operated 

 by a simple crank after the manner of the early machine 

 of Lallament; but while bicycles of this type attained 

 a considerable measure of popularity, the danger of 



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