On July 12 1817, German baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn changed personal mobility forever. He was 32 years old and had invented a two-wheel machine powered by the action of the rider’s feet on the floor. The invention was presented in Paris one year later: the wheels of the Draisienne were still wooden, and it had no breaking system other than the rider’s feet. I read long time ago that it is remarkable how humans had used horse-powered, two-wheeled chariots for thousands of years, but only last century someone thought of putting those two wheels one in front of the other rather than parallel, to eliminate the need for the propelling element (horse) and create the first bicycle. In its clunkyness and material excess, the beauty of the Draisienne is spectacular; it is the beauty reserved for the first versions of every truly new invention, the beauty that emanates from the truly bold idea, when intentions are much more sophisticated and work better than the physical prototypes that embody them. In France, the Draisienne was called “velocipède,” from “véloce” (fast) and “pède” (foot) and it was considered a personal mobility machine from the very beginning. It was not until 1861 that Pierre and Ernest Michaux would test a velocipède with pedals in its front wheel, and a configuration of radically different wheels in size and function, designed to maximize propulsion by pedaling. The clunkyness had begun to slowly evolve into specialized, harmonious form.
