CHARLES B. WARRING. 153 
understanding the secret of his keeping his seat so se- 
curely. 
But although this is true, this force may be thought 
sufficient, if supplemented by skillful balancing. The 
centrifugal force keeps the machine from falling when 
turning corners ; Will not good balancing account for its 
stability when moving in a straight line? Weare all fa- 
miliar with the phenomena of keeping one’s balance. 
We know the help a heavy pole gives at such times; 
how one’s arms and legs move with startling rapidity in 
the direction opposite to that in which he feels himself 
falling. Certainly there is none of this on the wheel. 
If the stability was due to balancing, it would not be 
difficult for the bicyclist to sit on his machine when not 
in motion, and with its wheels pointing both in the same 
direction. I have never seen one that could do it. I 
suspect, however, that it is not any more impossible than 
to stand on the top round of an unsupported ladder. 
But the ordinary ’cyclist cannot do it, and yet, without 
apparent effort, he rides securely. That his stability is 
not due to his balancing and to the rapid forward motion 
combined, is evident when we reflect that if the handles 
areimmovable, so that neither of the wheels can be turned 
to the right or left, it is impossible for any ordinary man 
to keep his machine from falling, unless he can change 
its course from a straight line to a curve, no matter at 
what speed he may move.* 
I think I am justified in saying that, of all the reasons 
thus far assigned for the stability of the bicycle, none is 
* At the close of the reading of this paper, a teacher of the art of 
riding the ’cycle, a man of large and varied experience, arose, and in 
the course of his remarks said that one of the chief difficulties he had 
to contend with in teaching beginners to ride was to induce them to 
give up all idea of balancing ; that tillthis was done they could not 
ride well—a striking corroboration of theoretical conclusions arrived at 
by the writer of the paper. 
LOS 
