Laufmaschine
Karl Drais’s wooden running machine – the ancestor of the bicycle, without pedals.
In 1817 the German forestry official Karl Drais showed a machine with two wheels in line that the rider sat on and pushed along with his feet. He called it a Laufmaschine, a running machine.
The machine was a brief craze in Europe, especially in England, where it was called the dandy horse. The important thing was the discovery that you can balance on two wheels in line – what makes the bicycle possible.
Materials: Wood, iron, leather
Manufacture: Built by wheelwrights and joiners after Drais’s model; many copies were made in several countries.
Two wheels in line under a wooden beam.
The steering bar to the front wheel.
The armrest in front of the saddle, on which the rider leaned.