410 
THE MECHANISM OE BICYCLES. 
new dress, I mean, that Major von Donop spoke of j I do not see- how the prin¬ 
ciple can be carried out otherwise. 
Major Holden’s machine, too, I have heard of, and heard a great deal of since 
it was invented and I was exceedingly anxious to see it. I am sure that my 
disappointment is exactly the same as that of everyone else at not having seen 
Major Holden, I will not say careering round the room, but at any rate riding 
the machine on the present occasion. 
There are a good many other points that I might, if there were more time, 
venture to weary you with. One machine T will just refer to while I think of it, 
and that is the machine called the North fleet. I had one of those sent to me to 
try some short time ago, but I came to the same conclusion exactly as Major von 
Donop has done, viz., that the trial of a machine for an odd day or two casually 
is no real trial; it is not until you have spent a good many weeks upon a machine 
and have ridden a good many hundred miles that you are in a position really to 
judge whether it has important advantages or not. I must say I was surprised 
to find the changing of gear from high to low and the reverse was effected at once 
without any trouble. I did not think the contrivance was very practical from 
the look of it, but I had no difficulty in making it work. Still, in the short 
time that I tried it I cannot say that I felt particularly pleased with the change 
of motion in any way. I should like to refer to it in this sense, as a develop¬ 
ment of the machine called the Omnicycle, which was not a bicycle at all, which 
came out about the year 1880 when all kinds of machines were being put upon 
the market in the hope that something would catch on, as they say. In the 
Omnicycle a feature which the inventor laid so much stress upon as being en¬ 
tirely useful and certainly ingenious was the fact that during the whole part of 
the stroke of the foot where the power was applied in a way somewhat akin to 
that in the Northfleet, the foot was acting at the same constant leverage. I 
pointed out to the inventor at the time that the design was ingenious and that 
the intended result was attained, but that I did not look upon it as an advantage 
because, especially with high gear and high speed you do not want the foot to 
have to start suddenly from its position at rest to the speed of the machine, and 
you do not want to stop the foot suddenly—you cannot do it; all motion of the 
foot at a speed less than that corresponding to the motion of the machine is 
wasted, you cannot either start or stop without an effort or a jerk. If, therefore, 
instead of having the same gear through the whole stroke the bands were made 
to work on eccentric and not concentric arcs as in this machine, the radius of the 
arc getting less and less towards the end of the stroke, the gear would in effect 
towards each end of the stroke become higher and higher the necessary velocity of 
the foot before and after being in touch with the machine would be less, and less 
waste and shock would be felt. I think even as it is there is some real loss 
which may or may not be equivalent to certain undoubted gains that are obtained 
by this machine. 
I understand that the Bantam machine, from my small experience with that, is 
certainly subject to more friction than the ordinary machines. I know that the 
work of the Crypto Company (and I have known it for the past fifteen years or so) 
is absolutely of the very highest possible class, and if it were not so the thing 
would not work. This class of machine requires the perfection that this company 
have always put into their work. I have found, however, that though the machine 
is necessarily beautifully made, if you have a pair of riders of equal weight and sur¬ 
face and they alternately ride a rear-driving safety (Hover pattern) and a Bantam 
down a gentle gradient with their feet off the pedals, the Hover type gets away 
from the Bantam. I have never on that account, partly that and partly from 
the comfort, or rather the discomfort of the thing, preferred the Bantam type of 
machine to the Hover type. 
