St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-14
EDISON, THE WIZARD,
Gives Some Hints as TO Future
improvements on Bicycles.

Gives Some Hints as TO Future
improvements on Bicycles.
New York Mail and Express.
THAT is Mr.. Edison said the good
looking man, pointing to the man who
sat at the desk and was rather more
shabbily dressed than his companions
Mr.. Edison smiled when asked
whether it was true that he had in
vented a device for propelling bicycles
by electric power. NO. said he, ut
is not true. 1 have never tried to
adapt electric power to the propulsion
of bicycles. What could have started
such a report? Why. I-believe I know"
said the wizard, laughing a bit this
time. II have been experimenting
with an attachment to a bicycle for
my own personal use, and for special
conditions, but 1 have not had time
to do anything to it lately. My house
in Llewellyn park, Orange, is about
one-sixth of a mile from my labora-
tory and eighty feet higher up ON the
mountain side. So, in order to save
myself heavy pull when I went
home in the middle of the day 1 de-
signed a heavy spring, just large
enough for the purpose, which was to
be wound up by power from the la
boratory engine and attached to the
bicycle before 1 started up the hill. 1
wanted this spring to supply most of
the energy for the ascent. OF course
| there was nothing electrical about it
at all; it was a purely mechanical con-
struction. 1t is now at my laborat tory
and l have not worked at it for some
time, as 1 expect to spend the summer
here getting my iron plant into run
ming ORDER
by the way" said Mr. Edison, turn
ing to the good-looking man in the
office, haven't you often wondered
why springs are not made use of in
bicycles or tricycles, as accumulators
of energy? 1t would be comparatively
easy to adapt them for the purpose.
| The device could be so arranged that
when riding down hill or even on a
level the rider could at will throw the
spring into gear and by degrees wind
it up to its limit Then when a hill
was to be climbed, or the rider wished
to' stop working for a short distance on
the level, he could turn on the power
and let the spring give back some
of the energy stored up in it. 1 don't
see why this should not be done. 1t
could be arranged so that the spring
could be wound up gradually, so as
not to make pedaling much heavier
when ON a. level, and should, 1 think,
be Of sufficient power to carry a rider
LOCO feet or so on good road, with
no upgrade, without his doing any
work.
Eyes, I believe that the system of
driving tricycles by storage batteries
and electric motors will undoubtedly
be in use in short time, perhaps two
| or three years. Storage batteries have
not yet been devised that would be
light enough and small enough to be
carried on bicycles, but 1 believe that
batteries powerful enough to send a
tricycle. twenty or twenty-five miles and
return, on good roads, could be made
to weigh not over sixty pounds. A
motor weighing twenty pounds would
probably be sufficiently large to attain
with this size battery a fair speed ON a
level road. A few years. will probably
see the system applied to trucking
goods in city streets.
with pneumatic tires the work of
riding has, of course, been greatly les
sened, and the chief reason is that the
energy wasted by the passage of a
solid tire over sandy road, for in
stance, is largely saved by the pneu-
matte. With the narrow solid tire the
sand is pushed out at either side of the
wheel and permanently displaced, and
that represents so much work done
and energy expended to no useful pur-
pose. The broad pneumatic tire, with
it's air cushion inside, gives out the en-
ergy in the form of a, reaction which is
transmitted to the ultimate source of
the energy, the rider himself.
81 don't doubt that for walking
matches the same principle will be
utilized in pneumatic shoes, having
rubber soles inflated with air. A hard
board or stone walk could then be
used, and I am sure that much greater
speed could be maintained than has
yet been made. Of course, the Shoes
would have to be made so as to avoid
clumsiness or excessive weight.
81 believe said Mr.. Edison, chat it
is a matter Of only a. few years at most
before hundreds of miles of special
bicycle roads will be built with single
line trolley wires overhead. Riders
will have motors on their wheels,
which can receive current from the
wires by trolleys, SO that quick spins
may be taken. This would open up a
new field of pleasure and usefulness
to the devotees of the Wheel