CHAPTER XXX 



CYCLES, MOTOR-VEHICLES AND TUBES 



IN addition to the developments in locomotion spoken of 

 in the previous chapter, there have been various others to 

 which reference should be made. 



The principle of a manu-motive machine, furnished with 

 wheels, by means of which an individual could propel himself 

 along a road with greater speed and less exertion than in 

 walking, goes back to the very earliest days of human history, 

 evidences of an attempt to adapt such principle having come 

 down to us from the times both of the Egyptians and the 

 Babylonians. 



In the last quarter of the eighteenth century and the first 

 half of the nineteenth, various contrivances were introduced 

 in our own country under such names as " the velocipede," 

 " the dandy horse," " the hobby horse," " the wooden horse," 

 and the particular form of bicycle known as " the bone- 

 shaker." The last-mentioned became, in spite of its draw- 

 backs, a craze in the late '6o's ; but it was the substitution 

 of indiarubber for iron tires, and the production, in 1885, by 

 J. K. Starley, of the modern rear-driven " safety," that 

 established the practical utility of the bicycle. A succession 

 of improvements followed, including pneumatic tires, free 

 wheels, two-speed and three-speed gears, the adaptation of 

 the bicycle to the use of ladies, and the supplementing of the 

 bicycle by tricycles, sociables, tandems and the motor-cycle. 



Cycles have been well defined as " the poor man's carriage " ; 

 but they are to-day favoured by every class of the community. 

 Thanks, more especially, to the numerous local cycling clubs 

 and the great touring clubs, of which the latter count their 

 members by tens of thousands, cycles have materially de- 

 veloped the taste for travel ; they have led to indulgence in 

 outings or pleasure trips at home and abroad to an extent 

 previously unknown ; they have vastly increased the means of 



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