412 
THE MECHANISM OF BICYCLES. 
EEPLY. 
Majob yon Donor : I have only one or two words to say. 
With regard to that excellent cyclometer I think it only wants one addition to 
it, that is that it should clean your bicycle for you when you take it home. 
I am very much obliged to Captain Lloyd for giving us those diagrams, and I 
shall be still more obliged to him if he will lend them to me so that we can com¬ 
pare the results he obtained by experiment with those of this other diagram of 
which I have more details. 
With regard to what Mr. Boys said about Turnbull’s machine, I picked that 
out specially as one that would be perhaps interesting to us as Woolwich people, 
and also to show the fallacy of these forms of machine that were made and were 
stated to give extra leverage, like expanding cranks, &c. 
I omitted to say that in trying the “ Elliptic ” machine I found that the move¬ 
ment of the foot was variable; it moved up and down and approached what is 
known technically as “ a simple harmonic motion,” and I can quite believe that 
at high speeds it would be very inconvenient, as Mr. Boys says. 
Mr. Boys mentioned Pedersen’s frame, and there is another thing I omitted 
to say before. The first machine that was made I saw at the Crystal Palace, 
and Mr. Pedersen told me (and I quite believe from its appearance that what he 
said was true) that he had ridden it some 8,000 or 4,000 miles, and it was made 
of poplar wood tied together at the joints with string and wire; and that led him 
to be perfectly sure that his calculations as to the angles were correct. 
With regard to the point mentioned by Mr. Boys in connection with the 
Veeder cyclometer and avoiding the use of formulae. I am afraid I do not like 
formulae very much and if I can possibly avoid them I do. For one thing I have 
a bad memory and one is apt to forget the formulae; and also I have to do, to 
a certain extent, with other people who hate formulae almost as much as I do, so 
that whenever possible when I am working out any piece of mechanism, or ex¬ 
plaining anything of that sort I try if I can to avoid the use of formulae. 
The Chairman : I am sure you will all join me in giving the lecturer a 
very hearty vote of thanks for his admirable lecture (loud applause). 
Major-General F. T. Lloyd, c.b. : I feel that I am interpreting your wishes, 
ladies and gentlemen, if I offer in your name our best thanks to Mr. Boys for 
presiding over our meeting to-night, and for the very interesting remarks that 
he has made upon the lecture that we have had so much pleasure in hearing 
(loud applause). 
