The Modern Bicycle and Its Accessories (1898) [pdf]

The chapter "Some Examples of Useless Contriving" is pretty neat:

> In 1893 a Hartford man patented a bicycle fitted with a large cylinder, borne on either side below the wheel centre, for compressed air. Having previously filled these, either by a foot pump, which takes the place of the usual pedals, or by a curious rotary hand pump carried under the upper tube, the rider climbed to his place, opened a convenient throttle valve and sped along gayly. On a down grade he could use the momentum to repump air, getting brake effect by so doing, or he could use the air pressure to work a brake direct; as the gas tanks carried two little wheels on spiral springs underneath them, the rider could step off and leave the whole construction upright, leaning down on one of these stop-wheels.

> Mr. Hansel, of Zeitz, in Germany, only recently rediscovered and patented the idea of driving by the rider’s weight. There are two saddles, each on its post, arranged to slide up and down see-saw fashion, and geared, no matter precisely how, to a very big pulley belted to a very small one on the rear wheel, the gear ratio being evidently enormous. The rider gets up on the seat which is at the top, slides down with it, thus starting the wheel; then he is to hop off that to the other seat (which has meanwhile gone up) and so on. Expressive silence may be left to “muse the praise” of this invention

A much better book [0] IMHO is "Bicycle and Tricycles: A Classic Treatise on Their Design and Construction" published in 1896 and republished by Dover in 2011. This book goes into great detail about the science of bicycling. It assumes only a basic math knowledge, and covers topics such as vector mechanics, stress, strain, mechanics of motion, dynamics, etc, all applied to bicycles. I found it quite readable and a great way to learn engineering mechanics. I highly recommend it.

[0] - https://www.amazon.com/Bicycles-Tricycles-Treatise-Construct...

Amusingly, the bike I ride today would not have seemed out of place in this book. Single speed coaster brake. The main improvements seem to be in the materials used, including aluminum and modern rubber.

There is so much emphasis on designs coming full circle, reverting back to the tried and tested from the novelty.

I think that is part of what makes this book so invaluable, the lessons on this including the 'folly of the patent' (where inventors forget about the '... and useful' part) is instructive no matter what business you are in.

I found the seat designs particularly telling on this front. The modern seat supports the bones on each side with a central channel that does not put pressure on the nether reasons.

This design was 'new'. Bicycle seats of the latter half of the last century did not have this, the highest point of the saddle (viewed straight on) was in the middle, there was no channel between each half. Yet in 1898 they had arrived at what is considered today to be the correct design. So this has gone full circle.

I also found the early pneumatic tyres to be an interesting read. The way of fixing a puncture has not changed, you have the same processes involved, a puncture repair kit from 1898 would be compatible with tyres on today's bikes. Although the glue would have run out, the process is the same and the instructions for doing it properly are the same.

Wheel rims have come a long way, in wood with the original pneumatic tyres it would take all day to peel off the tyre to get to the inner tube in order to fix it. Yet the benefits of the pneumatic tyre were such that this was considered worthwhile. This is also telling in that Dunlop's invention needed decades of refinement to be the tyre we know today.

Although some brand names are still in the game there seemed to be a lot of diversity with stuff actually made in a 'Trump approved' way, in American cities, all competing.

Non-PDF versions:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58444

There's a section on page 25 of the PDF called "THE TENDENCY TO FIXITY". I got excited thinking that 1898 had it own share of hipsters who insisted on riding fixed-gear bikes.

Actually, the author refers to the tendency of chasing after the latest fad. In the next section the opposite phenomenon is explained:

THE TENDENCY TO REVERSION. Reversion to type — a well-known phrase of the scientific evolutionist — means here a return to earlier and once-discarded forms of construction. Very few notice the process, yet it constantly goes on. The inquirer for novelties often has the old presented to him and is satisfied...

So - what's old is new... HN community take heed! Your old tools and web frameworks are fine.

I can't imagine gas powered bike lamps were great to ride around with but the ones they replaced (soot!, smoke!, danger!) must've been even more exciting.

The most interesting is page 233:

> CHAPTER XVII. MOTOR VEHICLES.

> ...

> ELECTRICITY AS POWER.

> Electricity comes next in the list, and is now limited for production of current to three forms — the power station, supplying current by a trolley and motor; the primary battery, carried on the vehicle; the storage battery, also carried on the vehicle. The first may be impossible commercially, but it is not at all so mechanically. Given the lines and some workable device for insuring that the carriage shall not be too often “off its trolley,” together with provision for some minor difficulties which need not be pronounced impossible (since in an inventive and pushing Republic the impossible is the thing which becomes possible), and the thing is done. Leave this method to the future, meanwhile noting that a trolley automobile is already reported from Nevada as having been built. The primary battery, to be taken along, seems out of the practicable list in the present state of electrical development.

Especially this note:

> The primary battery, to be taken along, seems out of the practicable list in the present state of electrical development.

It mostly solved only after 110 years since «The Modern Bicycle and Its Accessories» book published, when Elon Musk produced Tesla Roadster (2008)[0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Roadster_(2018)

We definitely need a 2020 version for electric bike design! I see the Jetson Bolt everywhere. And can't help thinking some brave nomadic explorer could travel the world on something similar.