The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1896-12-09
THE JUMPING BICYCLE.
BY j. III. BERNARD.
TCoPYRIGHT. 1861


He was genius-at any rate, he him
self often said so, with considerable fer
vor, and we tacitly agreed to allow him
the privileges accorded to all geniuses.
One evening he came in, tired and
hot, and very grimy, but fairly brim-
ing over with joy.
'Hullo, Jim!" hecried. Its all right.
I've succeeded at last!"
whats the matter?" inquired.
He smiled quietly and confidently.
"Oh, you want to know, do you? he
said. You're very curious, for won
der. But there is no reason now why
should not tell you about it, and even
show you the working of the machine.
And you can prepare yourself to be very
much astonished."
Then he went in to clean himself up.
He was right in saying that was very
curious about his machine. l was;
and following his instructions, was in
the garden the next afternoon at five
o'clock anxious to see the invention that
was to revolutionize the world.
When he came he brought with him a
bicycle.
"Hullo!" he cried, as soon as he saw
me. what do you think of this? A
beauty, isn't it?''
looked. 1t was not an ordinary bicy-
Gle, but one more heavily built, with
numerous additional cogs and cranks,
and an air cylinder like that of a West
inghouse air brake.
''What on earth is this clumsy thing
forY' l exclaimed.
Clumsy be hanged!" he replied, irri-
tably. my dear fellow, if you will
start criticising anything before you
understand it, how can you ever expect
to get on in life? Now, follow me, and
will explain it all. You remember my
remarking some weeks ago how eX-
traordinary it was that as yet no one
had had the intelligence to invent a
travelling machine which could sur
mount obstacles in it's path, like a
horse, by jumping over them. Very
well; here you have the first mechanical
invention to do so. This bicycle is not
an ordinary wheel, which loses half its
usefulness and charm by being COM
PEELED to keep to the roads. This is the
famous jumping bicycle have had in
my head so long. Observe, this cylinder
is full of air at high pressure. AS you
see by this little gauge, it now stands
at hundred and fifty pounds to the
square inch. The cylinder is construct
ed to bear pressure of 400. These four
bars, with joints in them, are connected
with the cylinder by means of the
cranks and cogs which you see; they
play the part of a horses legs; the joints
are, of course, the knees. Now, how
simple the whole thing is. At my right
hand have tiny lever, with the pow
ers marked, easy strong and full
Oh, by the way, forgot to remark that,
as even you can possibly understand,
there is an immense waste of power in
the ordinary bicycle. Going down a
steep hill, for instance, enough power
is generated to run the bicycle on a
level road for four to five miles. All this
hitherto wasted energy have utilized
in COMPRISING the air in the cylinder.
When I come to an obstacle-say /
want to get across ditch-I press the
lever to easy and the machine takes
a leap in the air of about 10 incnes,
while the forward impetus carries us
easily to the other side. If put the
lever on Strong I can take jump OF
six or seven feet; while the full power
means leap of anything from IL to
IS in height. In point of fact, it would
only require hard run of about a couple
of miles to generate sufficient power to