In 1790, there was a Frenchman named Sifulak who loved to use his brain. One day, he was walking on a street in Paris. Because it had rained the day before, there was a lot of rainwater on the road, making it difficult to walk. Suddenly, a four-wheeled carriage rolled up from behind. The street was relatively narrow and the carriage was very wide. Xifulak was able to hide and avoid being hit by the car, but he was still splashed with mud and rainwater. Others saw it and felt sorry for him. They even cursed in anger and wanted to ask the carriage to stop and negotiate with him. But Xifulak murmured: "Stop shouting, stop shouting, let them go." The carriage went away, and he still stood blankly on the side of the road. He was thinking: The road is so narrow and there are so many pedestrians, why can't the structure of the carriage be changed? The carriage should be cut in half along the way, and the four wheels should become two wheels at the front and rear... When he thought about it, he thought Design at home. After repeated trials, the first "Wooden Horse Wheel" car for transportation was built in 1791. This car has two wooden wheels at the front and back, with a crossbeam in the middle and a bench on it, like a toy club. Since the car does not yet have a transmission chain, the car can only move forward slowly by the rider's feet firmly pushing on the ground. Moreover, there is no steering device on the car. It can only go straight without turning. After a while, you will be exhausted and sweating profusely after going out for a ride. . New things that just come out are always less than perfect. Undeterred, Sifulak continued to think of ways to improve. Unfortunately, he died of illness soon. In 1818, there was a forester named Delais in Germany. He walked from the woods to the east of the village to another woods to the west of the village every day, and he did this every year. He thought: Wouldn't it be cool if a person sat in a car and walked and walked as he pleased? Delais began to make a wooden wheel cart, which looked similar to Sifulak's. However, a direction control handle is added to the front wheel to change the direction of travel. But when riding a bike, you still need to use your two feet to push the ground step by step to push the bike forward. When Delais went out on his bicycle to test, he was laughed at by many people along the way. Despite this, he still likes this "cute little pony" he created. In 1840, Macmillan, a blacksmith in England, got a dilapidated "lovely pony". He installed a crank on the axle of the rear wheel, and then used a connecting rod to connect the crank to the front pedals. The front and rear wheels were both made of iron, with the front wheel larger and the rear wheel smaller. When the cyclist steps on the pedals, the bike will start on its own and run forward. In this way, the cyclist's feet really leave the ground, and the alternate stepping of the feet becomes the rolling of the wheels, which greatly increases the driving speed. In 1842, Macmillan rode this kind of bicycle and ran 20 kilometers a day. Due to his carelessness, he pedaled too fast and knocked down a little girl on the road. He was caught by the police and fined. The crime was rough riding. In 1861, French Michaud and his son, who were originally carriage repairmen, installed a rotatable pedal board on the front wheel; the saddle of the car was placed on the front wheel, so that unless the riding skills were particularly high, otherwise If you can't hold the handlebar firmly, you will fall off the car. They gave this two-wheeled vehicle the elegant name "Bicycle" and exhibited it at the Paris Exposition in 1867, which opened the eyes of the audience. In 1869, after seeing the French bicycles, the British Renault felt that the bicycles were too bulky and began to think about how to make the bicycles lighter. He used steel wire spokes to tighten the rims as wheels; at the same time, he used thin steel rods to make the frame. The front wheels of the car were larger and the rear wheels were smaller. This reduces the weight of the bicycle itself. Starting from Sifulak and continuing to Renault, the five types of bicycles they produced are all quite different from modern bicycles. The bicycle in its true modern form was born in 1874. During this year, the British man Rossone ingeniously installed a chain and sprocket on the bicycle, using the rotation of the rear wheel to push the bicycle forward. But the front wheel is still large and the rear wheel is small, which looks uncoordinated and unstable. In 1886, Staley, a mechanical engineer in England, designed a new bicycle style from the perspective of mechanics and kinematics. He installed a front fork and brake on the bicycle, and the front and rear wheels were the same size to maintain the stability of the bicycle. Balanced, a diamond-shaped frame was made of steel tubes, and rubber wheels were used for the first time.
Staley not only improved the structure of bicycles, but also modified many machine tools used to produce bicycle parts, opening up broad prospects for the mass production and popularization of bicycles. Therefore, he is called the "Father of Bicycles" by future generations. The bicycles that Staley designed are basically the same as today's bicycles. In 1888, Dunlop, an Irish veterinarian, was inspired by treating gastric bloating in cattle. He glued the rubber tube used for watering in his garden into a round shape, inflated it enough, mounted it on a bicycle wheel, and went to participate in cycling. The competition, actually coming out on top, aroused great interest. Pneumatic tires are an epoch-making innovation in the history of bicycle development. They increase the elasticity of the bicycle and prevent it from vibrating due to uneven road surfaces; at the same time, it greatly increases the driving speed and reduces the friction between the wheels and the road surface. In this way, the riding performance of the bicycle is fundamentally changed and the use function of the bicycle is improved. It can be seen from this that from the late 18th century to the early 20th century, the invention and improvement of bicycles took about 200 years, and many people worked hard for it before it evolved into the current style of riding freely. The invention of the bicycle There are many theories about the invention of the bicycle. ① my country is the first country in the world to invent bicycles. The ancestor of the bicycle is the unicycle in my country more than 500 BC. During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty (1662-1722), Huangluzhuang invented the bicycle. Volume 11 of "Unofficial History of the Qing Dynasty" contains: "A two-wheeled cart made by Huangluzhuang is more than three feet long and can seat one person. It does not need to be pushed or pulled, and can move on its own. When traveling, use the hand to turn the axis and turn it around. Traveling as before, staying and moving for eighty miles. "This is the earliest bicycle in the world. ②The bicycle was invented by Western Europeans. In 1790 AD, the Frenchman Sifulak developed a wooden bicycle without handlebars, pedals, or chains. The shape of the car is like a wooden horse, with two wheels nailed to its feet, and the two wheels are fixed in a line. Since the bicycle had no driving device or steering device and the seat was low, Sifulak rode on the bicycle by himself, put his feet on the ground, and pushed backwards hard to make the bicycle move forward in a straight line. In 1817, Baron von Drais of Germany invented a handlebar that could move freely, making it easier to change his bicycle. In 1818, Delais applied for a patent in England. In 1839, K. Macmillan, a British worker, pioneered a pedal bicycle that used a crankshaft mechanism to drive the rear wheel, allowing people to lift their feet off the ground while riding a bicycle. One day in 1861, Parisian carriage and stroller manufacturers Michaud and his sons were repairing a Delais-style bicycle. After repairing it, when they tried it on a ramp, they found that it was difficult to put their feet on the bicycle, so they improved it. A pedal crankshaft was installed on the front wheel, thus creating the Michaud bicycle, which soon began to be mass-produced. Around 1870, France's Ma Zhi made another bicycle with a large driving wheel at the front and a small driven wheel at the back. This kind of bicycle had better operating results. After 1890, the British Humber Company produced a chain-driven, diamond-shaped bicycle. This form of bicycle is still in use today. ③The bicycle was invented by the Russians. One day in September 1801, the Russian serf Artamonov rode a wooden bicycle he made and traveled 2,500 kilometers to Moscow to present a gift to Tsar Alexander I. The bicycles made by Artamonov are similar to those made by the Frenchman Sifulak. When Alexander I saw the bicycle made by Artamonov, he immediately ordered that his slave status be cancelled. The strange design methods of early Europeans The first batch of truly practical bicycles in the world appeared in the early 19th century. In 1817, the German Derais invented a wooden two-wheeled bicycle with handlebars in Paris, France. After the advent of the bicycle, it quickly became the favored means of transportation for Europeans at that time. Some Europeans in the 19th century also conceived some ideal bicycle pictures.