Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-10-19
THE FUTURE OF CYICLING.
4 Return to First principles.

4 Return to First principles.
| To the human family the art of cycling
is the bestowal Of new faculty, says DIR. b.
W. Richardson in LDngman's Magazine.
am not an accomplished cycist, yet find
that by mems Of the simple machine, the
tricycle., facility of progression by my owr
muscular powers is fairly doubled, while
half the wearnes, incident to progression on
foot is s.vcd. II walk ten miles in three
hours-a fair pace-f am tired my ankles
feel weak, my feeN sore. my muscles
weary; so that after Nhc effort l am un.
fitted for any mental work until recruited by
a long rest. II 90 the same distance on the
tricycle. on the same kind Sf road, find
that 40 hour and half is the fullest time
required for the distance, and when the dis.
tance is finished, instead of feeNng sense
OF fatigue, instead of being ankfs- wearied
and foot.s,rc, I am agreeably refreshed by
the exercise, and ready for study or other
mental occupation.
In the early periods Of my professional
career, riding on horseback was \
necessary part of my daily life. [ bad
learned before then to ride without a saddle
and to become habitulted to all PAGES, and
until very lately have kept up horse exer'
else for the love of it, so that still, with Q
little renewed training, can take ride on
horseback of fivc.and twenty miles without
excessive fatigue. But would much rather
be forced to iidc forty miles on "A tricycle.,
IL the riding were n matter of choice, aud
the question Of fatigue the point that de-
termned the choice. This personal knowl-
edge is rendered because it is the most
practical, in support of the statement that the
| nj RI nf npnltn tuhS lau
it new faculty Of locomotion. 1t is in.
tended to be modest proof of the state.
ment for, If were 10 follow it up by the
record of what accomplished cyclists have
achieved, it might be proved that two OF
more faculties had been added, and that
when man can wheel himself at the rate
OF twenty miles an hour, and n woman can
wheel herself hundred miles a day, there is
| found new machinery in the human body
ltself-a new set of muscles almost, n new
skeleton leverage, new kind of volition.
Nor will advance Stop. We are entering on
a new era in locomotion. To those OF us
who have studied the question of muscular
motion physiologicay, it is quite clear that
concentration of POKER in great engines is
not the ultimate, as 1t IS not the natural,
design for progression, because it is not
primary. 1t seems wonderful thing and
an easy thing for hundreds of persons to be
moved by one steam engine. 1t seems like
starting aud moving from beginning il we
shut our eyes to everything until we see the
engine and train before us. But let us go
gack. Let US think of the enormous amount
OF muscular power that has been employed
to extract the materials out of which that
| engine is made and to construct the engine
| to dig out from the earth the coal to feed the
furnace; and all by living power. Then the
ques tions spring up, ho" much human labor
Is actually saved. how much of the severest
labor is added to mankind by the engine
| Aud soon another question springs up
namely, how long will men consent TO be
engines for engines? 1t is hardly in human
nature to suppose that men will long con-
tinuc to hold such position. Will they hold
to it in these islands for another fifty years
| very much misunderstood my coming
oountrymcn if they will. Sir Humphrey
Davy, in the later Part OF his life, said
that long before coal was used up men
would know how 10 burn water. This is
probably true; but what about coal
working? Long before coal ceases the coal
worker will cease, and pcIchance before
men can burn water.
We want, therefore, 10 return quickly to
first principles. Everyone his own loco
motor against time.
BY the simple machines bicycles and tri-
cycles we are returning to first principles.
We are endowing every person who can usc
| these machines with Il new and independent
| gift of progression, aud TO what extent this
art will proceed in quarter Of "A century If
IL makes the same progress that il has made
in the past twentieth part of Il century, lie
were indeed bold man who should venture
to predict. | have already said, what now
take occasion to repeat, that the art Of flight
Will be the practical outcome of the grand
experiment which is now going on for,
when II machine can be reduced in weight tC
twenty-sx pounds, and when such machine
can he propelled on good track twenty
miles within the hour, by human limbs
carrying the man who propcis it, there arc
not many removes 10 the capacity
of driving wings or alr-screws at sufficient
rate to afford support TO the machine on the
air. think that many persons will, indeed
live TO see n partial development, at least
of this kind They WILL | mean, see con
s,ruc,ed machine which will bc partly
sustained by the air and partly by surface OF
wa,er-of sea, or lake, or liver and whict
will skim over such surface with jus
sufficient friction for stcelagc power, and NJ
more In short, flying canoe or boa
which, elegant AS useful, will ut one mo
mcnts like n nautilus rui with the wind
and at another skim the water independently
Of wind, like sea bird.