Adam's The Irish Library Wednesday 17th April 2019

173 www.adams.ie The Irish Library| 17th April 2019 227 A 19TH CENTURY ‘BONE SHAKER’ BICYCLE, of metal construction, painted maroon with red stripe detail, with padded leather seat and straps. 123cm high x 170cm wide € 3,000 - 5,000 Although the term ‘bicycle’ has been in circulation since the 18th century, the bicycle, as we would dis- cern it today, is very much a 19th century invention. 7KH ȴUVW WZR ZKHHOHG PDFKLQH UHSUHVHQWDWLYH of a modern bicycle frame was Karl Drais’s ‘Lauf- maschine’ or ‘running machine’. This was patented in Germany in 1818 and, whilst it resembled a bicycle, it had no pedals and was instead propelled by the rider pushing the contraption along with their feet. Although relatively clumsy, Drais’s invention enjoyed a brief success in Germany, France and England and put in motion the future of two-wheeled transport. The exact timeline of the pedal driven bicycle from here becomes slightly fuzzy, with several people laying claim to its creation. However, Parisian Pierre Michaux can be seen as producing bikes in France in the 1860s, with mass production in place from 1868. Whilst the design was sound, the materials at the time were limited, with the bikes being made from iron and wood. Not only did this make them ex- tremely heavy to manoeuvre, but the solid materials provided little forgiveness to their rider and the nick- name ‘boneshaker’ was aptly coined. As we can see with this example, hard rubber tyres were brought in in 1868 to replace metal and wood, but they did little to relieve their rider. It wasn’t until 1888 that pneumatic tyres were invented by Belfast based veterinarian J.B. Dunlop. Unlike the solid rub- ber version, the pneumatic tyre was largely made up of air. This paved the way for a more comfortable, swifter and enjoyable ride, revolutionising the per- ception of the bicycle and bringing it that much clos- er to its modern form.