The New York Times reports on a Smithsonian exhibition:
The Bicycle and the Ride to Modern America
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The end-of-the-century bicycle craze also greased the gears of industrial genius, as manufacturers here and abroad scrambled to devise new ways to speed up and standardize production, to lighten the bicycle frame without compromising its strength, and to make the ride cushier through the addition of a radical new invention, the pneumatic tire.
The full-bore bicycle fever was brief, and by the early 20th century it had given way to fascination with the automobile. Yet, as a new exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History makes clear, the impact of the bicycle on the nation’s industrial, cultural, emotional and even moral landscape has been deep and long lasting. …
Bicycles also gave birth to our national highway system, as cyclists outside major cities grew weary of rutted mud paths and began lobbying for the construction of paved roads. The car connection goes further still: Many of the bicycle repair shops that sprang up to service the wheeling masses were later converted to automobile filling stations, and a number of pioneers in the auto industry, including Henry Ford and Charles Duryea, started out as bicycle mechanics. So, too, did the Wright brothers. …
“The pre-story is so important,” said Eric S. Hintz, a historian with the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. “You don’t get automobiles unless you first have bikes.” …
“Myself plus the bicycle equaled myself plus the world,” wrote Frances Willard, a founder of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. As women took to the activity, they quickly realized that long skirts were a tangling hazard and that corsets compromised their aerobic capacity. Some began wearing split skirts or bloomers and loosened tops, while others shortened their hems.
Bicycles allowed young men and women to tool around the countryside unsupervised, and relationships between the sexes grew more casual and spontaneous. With a bicycle at her disposal, a young woman could also venture forth in search of work.
Small wonder that Susan B. Anthony said of cycling, “I think it has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world.”
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Remember those bicycle mechanic brothers who did the “Wright” thing.
OOPS, didn’t read the whole article well before commenting, me bad…
The electric starter for the automobile really set women free:
http://www.rokemneedlearts.com/carsindepth/wordpressblog/?p=4143
http://www.daytoninnovationlegacy.org/kettering.html
Evalyn Parry spun this little-known story into a great musical: “Inspired in part by the incredible true tale of Annie Londonderry – the first woman to ride around the world on a bicycle in 1894 – Parry spins a web of stories which travel from 19th century women’s emancipation to 21st century consumer culture” http://evalynparry.com/spin/
This idea that bikes and cars are entirely different worlds and that their respective enthusiasts are natural enemies is a very recent invention. There are many people into both and don’t see any conflict. It’s natural that if you’re a tinkerer or into mechanical means of motion you would be into both things.
Bikes work so well in European cities as those cities have been designed for pedestrians in mind 800+ years ago – with inner city layouts basically unchanged – with small distances.
In North-America most cities didn’t exist 100 years ago, and were laid out with a car in mind. That is the basic backdrop why bikes are used far less here for transportation than in Europe.
As such this article is European inspired. Even to this day, riding a bike in Southern-US in the summer or northern US or Canada in the winter is only for the most rugged individual due to weather – unlike Europe which is far more moderate in temperature [except Pacific NW and Lower Mainland].
Bikes go slow and are for one person. They work poorly in the rain, or uphill, or in the winter, or in the brutal 40+ degree summer common to much of the US, or to schlepp gear around. Cars, in contrast are so versatile they can be used in any weather, in any terrain, with one to 5 (or even 7) people, over far larger distances, with large carrying capacity of all type. As such, the individual vehicle (“the car”) will be with us for many more centuries.