Abstract
December 22, 1818.—The hobby-horse, the fore-runner of the bicycle, was the invention of Baron von Drais, and was introduced into England by Denis Johnson, coachbuilder, of Long Acre, who was granted a patent for it on Dec. 22, 1818, under the title of “a machine for the purpose of diminishing the labour and fatigue of persons in walking and enabling them at the same time to use greater speed, which said machine he intends calling ‘the pedestrian curricle’”. One of his machines, built for a Duke of Marlborough, is now in the Science Museum.
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Calendar of Patent Records. Nature 124, 968 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124968b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124968b0