& HAPPY 200TH ANNIVERSARY, BIKE

While Canada is marking a significant milestone this year, so is our favourite invention: the bicycle. It all began with a steerable front wheel. In 1817, German baron Karl Drais von Sauerbronn engineered a twowheeled vehicle with that innovative front wheel In 1818, he was awarded a patent, calling it a Laufmaschine (German for “running machine”) and in 1819, he took it to Paris. There it was renamed a velocipede and the contraption spread to the United Kingdom, Italy, Austria and the United States.

Enthusiasm came and went for the twowheeler, which finally acquired the name bicycle in 1868. Technological innovations such as ball bearings, wire-spoked wheels and a chain and gears were developed and finessed both in Europe and North America throughout the next 20 years. In 1899, more than one million bicycles were manufactured – 10 years prior, only 200,000 were made.

Due to the bicycle’s affordability, it was – and continues to be – used for business, recreation and sport. It was integral to the women’s movement at the turn of the 20th century and had influence on automobile design (steel tubing and pneumatic tires first seen in bicycles were adapted for cars). And to date, bikes remain the most efficient means of converting human energy to mobile power.