A fundamental invention was the suspension wheel, of which, in the words of an English patentee of 1126, 'the weight they have to carry is suspended from that part of the wheel which happens to be uppermost, instead of being sup ported, as is usual, by the spokes that happen to be under the axle-trees— a principle in vented by Leonardo da Vinci before 1490, re invented as above stated, and in France in 1864. Spring seats have abolished the saddle-galling which was one of the worst tortures of the and even of the earlier bicycles. The wooden rim takes two and a half pounds off the weight of the machine, but is not used in England, the roads being too wet. The drop frame for ladies' use is perhaps the most im portant single advance made on the velocipede, so far as the increase of social pleasure is con cerned. The coaster-brake is another import ant advance. The chain gearing which made the ssafetys possible has been noted; later, much ingenuity has been employed to get rid of it, but not with complete satisfaction, the cost being prohibitive to the mass, and the complaint of extra exertion being heard. The two chief devices for chainless machines are the pin-wheel gearing, which works smoothly but lacks durability; and the bevel gear, which is very difficult to cut so that the teeth shall fit exactly, but is said to increase in both accuracy and ease of driving with use, as the surfaces of the teeth grow to fit each other. In the chain gear the case is the reverse, as the links and rivets wear and dust grinds them off.
In the United States the bionle did not ap pear after the collapse of 1870 till the Centen nial Exposition of 1876, when some English machines were imported and exhibited. Col. Albert A. Pope of Boston saw them and thought of reviving the business here; went to England to study the industry, brought back some English wheels, and had W. S. Atwell of Boston build him one, weighing 70 pounds and costing $313. Again visiting England, he de cided that conditions here warranted their manufacture for the market, and in 1878 he had the Weed Sewing Machine Company, of Hart ford, Conn., make some 4Colurnbiaso for him in a corner of their shop, the first bicycles made in America. From the first, these have been the American model of durability and ex cellence of make, as well as of advanced in vention in construction and fittings, and 11113117 passed in the world; and they still maintain that position. The business soon grew into one of the great manufactures of the country, and •the Pope Company was the chief among 'those merged in the American Bicycle Company a few years ago. The usafetyo brought the sattte
expansion here as elsewhere; but since. about 1895 there has been a severe decline. The slack ening of demand produced a severe crisis in the business, but it eventually settled upon a firm though more limited basis of practical service and every-day pleasure. The census returns show the remarkable changes that have talcen place. In 1890 there were 27 establishments engaged in making bicycles in the United States; the capital invested being $2,058,072; the number of employees, 1,797, and the value of the product, $2,568,326. By 1900, the business had so extended that the number of establish ments had increased to 312; the amount of cap ital invested to $29,783,659, while the 17,525 workmen employed received an annual wage of $8,189,817. The cost of material in that year was $16,792,051 and the value of the product $31,915,908. Five years later, when the special census of American manufacturing interests was taken, the number of establishments had been reduced to 101. In that year the capital employed was but $5,883,458; the number of em ployees, 3,319; the wages paid, $1,971,403; the cost of materials, $2,628,146, and the value of the product, $5,153,240. The number of finished machines turned out was 250,487, of which 2,328 were motorcycles. Between 1904 and 1914 the number of establishments in operation de creased from 122 to 94, but the number of workers increased 33.7 per cent — to 4,487, and the value of the output 111.2 per cent — to $17,667,676. A considerable part of this in crease was due to the motorcycle industry: there were 62,793 of these machines made, a value of $12,306,447. The number of bicycles made was 398,899, valued at $5,361,229. The remainder of the output was in parts, valued at $7,819,266. The capital etnployed in 1909 was $9,780,102. In France the vogue of the bicycle has steadily progressed. The official records show that in 1912 there were 2,969,585 bicycles in use in that country: about one to each 13 persons: Ten years before the proportion was one to each 30 persons.
Bibhography.— Allen, J. T., 'Digest of Cycles or Velocipedes, Patented in the United States from 1789 to 1892' (Washington 1892); Bougier, H., 'Cycles et Motocycles) (Paris 1911) ; Clyde, H., 'Pleasure-Cycling> (Boston 1895) ; Garratt, H. A., 'The Modern Safe ty Bicycle) (New York 1899) ; Sharp, An th.ew (Bicycles and Tricycles) (London 1896) ; and 'the valuable historical stunmary in the United States census reports of 1910, 'Manu factures) (Part X, p. 8'25).