From the Smithsonian Snapshot
This week’s Smithsonian Snapshot celebrates National Bike Month with the forerunner of the modern bicycle: this ca. 1818 draisine.
In 1817, Karl Drais, a young inventor in Baden, Germany, designed and built a two-wheeled, wooden vehicle that was straddled and propelled by walking swiftly. Drais called it the laufmaschine or “running machine.”
A forester for the Grand Duke of Baden, Drais used his laufmaschine to inspect the Duke’s forest. The laufmaschine soon became a novelty among Europeans, who named it the “draisine.”
By 1818, the draisine craze reached the United States. Charles Wilson Peale, a well-known portrait artist, helped to popularize the draisine by displaying one in his museum in Philadelphia. Many American examples were made, and rentals and riding rinks became available in Eastern cities.
By 1820, the high cost of the vehicle, combined with its lack of practical value, limited its appeal and made it little more than an expensive toy. The two-wheeled vehicle would not become sustained until pedals were added in the late 1800s.
Donated to the Smithsonian in 1964, this draisine is the oldest cycle in its collection of 61 cycles. They reflect social trends and technological developments that have shaped the growth and popularity of riding since 1818.
To view more bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles and other vehicles at the Smithsonian, visit the National Museum of American History’s “America on the Move” exhibition.
This item is one of 137 million artifacts, works of art and specimens in the Smithsonian’s collection. It is not on display. To learn more about this item, visit the National Museum of American History’s website.
How proto-steampunk.
Posted by: Crickey7 | May 01, 2012 at 05:08 PM
Hey! My three year old rides one of those! :)
Posted by: oboe | May 01, 2012 at 05:21 PM
Hey! My three year old rides one of those! :)
Posted by: oboe | May 01, 2012 at 05:21 PM
My neighbor rides one of those, too!
Posted by: Shawn | May 01, 2012 at 05:31 PM
Will the museum have a special feature on bicycles for National Bike Month? I haven't been there in a few months. The last time I was there, I don't remember seeing too many bike exhibits, maybe one or two old prototypes in a display case.
It would be a nice to see an exhibit of how bike designs have changed and improved over the decades.
Posted by: Michael H. | May 01, 2012 at 07:35 PM
After seeing this I will never complain about my saddle again.
Posted by: Rootchopper | May 01, 2012 at 09:54 PM
"the high cost of the vehicle, combined with its lack of practical value, limited its appeal and made it little more than an expensive toy."
In other words, a tri bike.
Posted by: Jack Cochrane | May 01, 2012 at 11:31 PM
Drais was from the city of Mannheim (not Baden), located in the Bundesland of Baden-Württenburg. This is the same city where the first automobile was invented by Karl Benz in 1885.
Posted by: Beaker | May 02, 2012 at 05:25 AM
If you want to talk about saddle problems, read about this guy:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/man-sues-bmw-alleging-motorcycle-seat-gave-him-010902532.html
Posted by: Michael H. | May 02, 2012 at 08:22 AM
After seeing this I will never complain about my saddle again.
Not sure what you mean? Isn't that just a standard Brooks B17 that was accidentally ridden in the rain once?
Posted by: oboe | May 02, 2012 at 09:42 AM
I can't wait for this to become the latest hipster chic.
Posted by: SJE | May 02, 2012 at 04:34 PM
@Beaker: In this article, Baden does not refer to a city but rather to the Grand Duchy of Baden in which Drais lived. Indeed, Drais was from Karlsruhe, then the capital of Baden. Karlsruhe is now the third-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
Posted by: Eric_W. | May 02, 2012 at 11:35 PM