Each week with RetroNews, the BNF press site, we take a look back at a sports story as told by the press of the time. Today, the birth of the bicycle on the occasion of the departure of the Tour of Italy.
Let’s admit that it would have the mouth. A grand tour disputed not on hyper-sophisticated bikes (carbon, disc brakes, electric derailleur, large oval chainring, even engine stashed in the frame…) but on a balance bike. A return to the sources two centuries after the presentation in France, on April 4, 1818, of the Walking machine or “running machine” invented the previous year by German baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn. That day, the Journal of Political Debates and literary presents the event, by francizing the name of the hero of the day: “Mr. the baron de Drais, master of the forests of the Grand Duchy of Baden, will show the public a test of the machine called velocipede, of which he is the inventor. […] This invention consists of the simple idea of moving with the feet a seat fixed on two wheels which run in a row. On a well-maintained main road, the velocipede goes, uphill, as fast as a man walking with great strides. In a plain and on a dry road, he travels four leagues [près de 20 km, ndlr] in an hour ; which equals the walk of a galloping horse. It takes exercise and skill to keep your balance, and not to be injured in the feet by the rear wheel. […]»
Nearly half a century has passed since that month of April 1818. Water has flowed under the bridges and kilometers have passed under the wheels of the velocipeders. Who soon will no longer need their feet to push but to pedal. The exact date of the appearance of the pedal and the identity of its inventor are not clear. In France, several families have quarreled over paternity. The first pedal bikes were marketed in the mid-1860s and quickly became popular. But the control of the machine is not easy as suggested the small newspaper of November 19, 1867 in its section… “Courts”. It is indeed question of the trial of the young Robert, circulating by velocipede on the space of the Throne, accused of having overthrown Mr.me Faivre, who will leave a shoulder in the fall. The incident provides a curious judicial chronicle: “This thin mechanical horse, which replaces the hind legs and the front legs with two simple wheels, and which is called the velocipede, is not a new invention; people who are now of a white-haired generation have seen this strange mechanism work, which demands miracles of balance from its rider and whose mount is about as comfortable as a witch’s broomstick. We are assured that this somewhat forgotten machine has just reappeared with a whole new luster. It has its amateurs, its supporters, its fanatics and finally its club. Unfortunately, she just had her accident and her victims. […]» Contradicted by witnesses, the accused’s version – “I didn’t touch her; on the contrary, I shouted “Station” to him from afar; that scared her, and she fell, trying to step back too hastily ”- does not convince the judge. Robert fils takes a high price: two months’ imprisonment and 500 francs in damages for Robert fils.
The next day, there is still talk of cycling in the small newspaper, who wonders about the very nature of the machine with regard to a comical exchange between a user and the toll operator of a bridge. “Everyone is familiar with velocipeds, these two-wheeled mechanisms on which we sometimes see people moving very quickly in the streets”, assures the newspaper before asking “the” question: “Is a man on a velocipede on foot or in a car?” This question, which seems quite idle, has arisen recently in a very practical way. A traveler on a velocipede wanted to cross the other day one of the few bridges in the vicinity of Paris still subject to the toll … The traveler hands the attendant a five-centime coin. This one refuses. “It’s twenty cents,” he said, “for people in cars.” The man with the velocipede stops, the pretension seemed a little strong to him; but the attendant did not budge and persisted in demanding twenty centimes. The traveler had an inspiration, he descends and puts on his back the mechanism which was carrying him earlier. He was on foot and the attendant had to let the man and the vehicle pass for five cents. “
The velocipede becomes almost an object of sociological study. What does he do with man? Does he free him? Does he enslave him? Is he his new noblest conquest? The Fun Journal, which in this case bears its name rather well, of June 13, 1868, is ironic. Bicycle, horse; bicycle rider, rider, boundaries are blurred and then disappear. “In the exercise of the velocipede, the two fatigues – that of the pedestrian and that of the rider – are pleasantly combined. So that, two negations being worth an affirmation, these two fatigues together cause, after a few hours, a delicious rest in the whole body and an inexpressible feeling of well-being. And then what satisfaction for a man to be both a mount and a rider, to join in one person the intelligence of the king of creation to the iron shank of the noblest of animals. “
Cycling stories in Retrosports Major Taylor: the “Flying Negro”, the first international cycling star; Physical hell and drugged cyclists: the 1924 Tour de France by Albert Londres; 1919, the Tour de France takes to the road again; How Maurice Garin put the first Tour in his bag
The small newspaper is fully on the velocipede. On July 5, 1868, we can read: “It is the fury of the moment – it is the stopping point of the public highway – it is the concern of the drivers – it is the concern of the pedestrians. We meet them in the woods, on the boulevards, in the streets. We must speak of it as a sign of the times, as a manifestation, the tastes and sympathies of the crowd. The velocipede is in fashion. […] It is a light machine with two wheels, the size of a wooden horse, which amuses little children. The rider’s active heels make the mechanical mount go, just as the spur-armed heels make a living mount walk. Both feet are stamping. The wheels obey this continual movement of the leg and the hock. The machine is rolling. And the arms guide, like a rudder, the mechanics within their reach, necessary for changes of direction. […] It is obvious that the velocipede has a marked advantage over the horse. We won’t eat it. ”
Another essential question: is the practice of the velocipede good for health? The subject divides the faculty: “The velocipede has its detractors. […] Finally, there are doctors who maintain that this continual exercise of the legs, imparting an impulse to the wheels by their uninterrupted movement, is not very healthy. […] The velocipede, which tires the legs, leaves the body inert, and forces the foot to a monotonous movement and always the same, which tires a part of the human machine, leaving the other parts in a dangerous immobility. “
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In his “Parisian Chronicle” of September 8, 1868, Le Figaro mocks this velocipediemania. “The velocipede is the noblest conquest of man, we must admit, and if I agree today, it is not because of its success, but because I see it rise to the height of an institution. They say that we will attach to each of our high schools a velocipede teacher. It is, it seems, an idea of the Minister of Public Instruction. Fruitful idea! […]»
As to Fun diary, the velocipede is a mine of inspiration for its designer, as illustrated by these three pages of its edition of March 27, 1869.
Eternal reference to the canasson. The Small Universal Monitor of May 28, 1869, speaks of the bicycle as “Horse of those who do not have one”. The newspaper takes its reader to the workshops of the Compagnie parisienne des vélocipèdes (former Michaux house, named after one of the alleged inventors of the pedal) for a detailed review of all the phases of the construction of machines, some of which are shipped. in the Americas or in India. The Compagnie Parisienne is also a bicycle-school pharmacy, the newspaper says: “Apart from its vast workshops, where a whole world of workers is occupied, where orders pour in from all over the world, it has an elegant merry-go-round, in which the adepts of the velocipede learn in a few lessons, from a skilful teacher, the ‘art of maneuvering their mounts and maintaining their balance. “
“The velocipede had every chance, continues the newspaper, even the glory of being sung by a poet, Mr. Charles Monselet” who composed this stylistically unidentified object.
Stiff instrument
Make it beat,
Who dispossesses
The tortu chariot;
Velocipede,
Rail impromptu,
Son of Archimedes,
Where do you come from?
From Sweden
With a pointed roof,
Or from Toledo
Of clad steel? ”
Gilles Dhers
.
