PRECIS 
AND 
TRANSLATION. 
MILITARY CYCLISM. 
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH . 
BY 
F . E . B . L . 
MILITARY cyclists have covered themselves with glory in the recent man¬ 
oeuvres in Normandy, near Arras and St. Quentin. Surprises of dragoons riding 
trustfully along, skirmishes with advance guards, carrying off patrols and the 
defenders of isolated posts, all in the very face of General Billot, who wondered 
much at it all. 
The same feats, recorded last year in the manoeuvres at Charentes, are being 
now reproduced by another cyclist company of the 11th division, “ the Iron 
Division.” 
Who would have suspected a few years ago the part, always on the increase, 
which this steel toy, the bicycle, would be called upon to play in the army, per¬ 
haps to revolutionize tactics as it has modified manners and customs. 
There was much laughter when the Italians first employed the steel horse in 
1875 at the manoeuvres at the camp of Somma. But in those days there was 
nothing to be had but a lofty bone-shaker. 10 years afterwards Austria fol¬ 
lowed suit, followed by her faithful ally, Germany. Trance and Russia had not 
yet mounted their tandem. 
Cycling clubs were the initiators of the movement in France. A trial was made 
in 1886 when the clubs were invited to place eight cyclists at the disposal of the 
general commanding an army-corps. Their services were such that General 
Cornat said at the close of the manoeuvres that he preferred cyclists to optic 
telegraphy up to 12 kilometres and to cavalry at all times. Military cyclism 
was thus established : in 1889 the principles of its organisation were laid down, 
and in 1891 M. de Freycinet, then war minister, invited all the army corps chiefs 
to report to him as to the services that might be rendered in a campaign by 
military cyclists. These reports were so favourable that a commission, presided 
over by General de Boisdeffre, decided on appointing 3000 of them, divided into 
regimental and staff cyclists. The bicycle was also pressed into the service of 
bridges, telegraphy, and balloons. 
There were of course many detractors, but their objections fell to the ground 
when it was seen with what rapidity and efficiency cyclists carried out a thousand 
difficult services, which had up to then rendered indispensable numerous cavalry 
soldiers on the staff of an army corps. 
Those keen cyclists, however, who were not satisfied with the humble posts of 
messengers and carriers of letters and orders, insisted that the bicycle was and 
must be made a fighting machine. 
The outcome of this view of the matter is the folding bicycle of Captain 
Gerard of the 87th regiment. It can be carried, when folded, in the hand or on 
the back. Its wheels are smaller than those of ordinary rear-driving ones (prob¬ 
ably about 2ft. in diameter, the same as the front wheel of a Bantam) and the 
saddle is placed vertically above the axis of the hind wheel, generally rather low, 
so that the rider may stand over it when firing. 
The tube connecting the saddle and the bracket is curved round the back wheel, 
3. VOL. XXV. 
