Pedal bicycle (Michaux velocipede)
Bicicleta de pedales (velocípedo Michaux)
- Date
- 1861-1867 · confidence medium
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement (1861-1866); Kirkpatrick Macmillan (Scotland, c. 1839, disputed)
- People
- 👤 Kirkpatrick Macmillan1812–1878
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A velocipede with pedals fixed to the front wheel, mass-produced by Michaux in Paris and exhibited at the 1867 Exposition. The start of the bicycle industry and of cycling.
Macmillan (Dumfries, c. 1839) is said to have added crank pedals without the idea spreading; Lallement, who worked with Michaux, patented the pedals in the United States in 1866; Michaux mass-produced them from 1867.
What it led to
- The velocipede craze (1868-1869) and the first races
- The high-wheel bicycle and the safety bicycle (1885)
- Lightweight engineering: bearings, steel tubing, chains (the basis of the automobile and aviation industries)
- Female emancipation and working-class mobility (1890s)
Built on
Made possible
- Solid rubber tyre1845-1867
- Motorcycle1885
- Derailleur1949
- Safety bicycle
- Dunlop's pneumatic tyre (1888)
- Light motor car