Invention: The Technical Evolution of the Modern Bicycle

Abstract

Henry Wood made the above comments at the Royal Society of Arts in London in 1897 in response to an address by George Lacy Hillier on ‘Cycling: Historical and Practical’, one of a series of technical papers on the history of the bicycle presented at the Society in the 1890s.² The speakers were major figures in the industry, and they had a particular vantage in looking back at the history of the bicycle’s invention from the point where its modern form had become stable, its popularity unquestioned and the future of the industry seemingly assured. As they addressed members of this august body, founded in the mid-18th century to encourage the arts, manufacturing and commerce, there might well have been an air of triumphalism. The bicycle industry and its many contingent enterprises were prospering, and here was an object lesson in how to bring innovative modern technology to the market with resounding success (at least until the slump of the 1900s, the result of overproduction).