The Story of the Bicycle Author:John Woodforde This is the story of rider-propelled vehicles from the sprain-inducing eighteenth-century hobby-horse to the small-wheeler of today. The emphasis is less technical than social. Michael Faraday rode a hobby-horse and the Prince Imperial of France a boneshaker. Hilaire Belloc used a penny-farthing in his work as a newspaper reporter. Leonard Huxle... more »y crossed the Simplon on a penny-farthing.
In 1899 Mrs. Sprague, landlady of a Ockham hotel, declined to serve lunch in the dining-room to an elderly woman bicyclist, Lady Harberton, because she was wearing knickerbockers. The Cyclists' Touring Club and Mrs. Sprague indicted at quarter sessions for unlawfully refusing a traveller with victuals. She was acquitted; but the case fanned growing resentment over rules for female dress and was later seen as a milestone on women's road to emancipation. In a variety of ways, bicycling has affected the pattern of life.
In Amsterdam and Copenhagen the bicycle remains an important form of transport. Few ride bicycles around London; though both the author of this book and the chairman of Routledge & Kegan Paul are among those few.
'With more than 90 illistrations, including many contemporary prints, cartoons and advertisements, the book is a fascinating and often funny record of cycling machines and manners.'-- The Times« less