“Not to know what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child.” Cicero (46 B.C.) “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. 1: Reason in Common […]
Continue ReadingNaturally, as with many things, cyclists got there first. This is an advert from Cycling Life of 1897.
Continue ReadingIn December 2001, the “tech world’s most-speculated-about secret” was a personal transportation device. Costing $100m to develop, the inventor said the device – codenamed Ginger – was to be “to the car what the car was to the horse and […]
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Satirical artist William Heath produced this fascinating depiction of transport of the future in 1829, a year before the first passenger steam train service, and while horse-drawn stage coaches still ruled the road (they plied their trade on turnpikes, the […]
Continue ReadingThis crudely-drawn bike-borne Santa was in the December 1896 issue of Cycling Life, one of a number of American bicycle trade magazines. The full ad from Syracuse bicycle manufacturer E. C. Stearns can be seen below. It says: “At this […]
Continue ReadingThe Team Valley Trading Estate in Gateshead looks pretty much like any other trading estate in Britain. But it was the first. It cost £2m to build and was meant to reinvigorate this corner of North East England. The road […]
Continue ReadingJumping around on bicycles has a long history. Wheelmen of the 1880s rode down flights of steps, balanced on ledges and pulled the sort of tricks that would make Hans ‘No Way’ Rey wince. And this wasn’t just on new-fangled […]
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This cartoon about cycling conditions in England published in 1900 in the American cycling magazine ‘Wheeling’ shows that the demand that bicycles should be registered and taxed has a long history. In fact, the demand is almost as old as […]
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This group of cyclists was photographed in the 1880s and shows a fine party from a chapter of the League of American Wheelmen. Note there’s a new-fangled Safety bicycle underneath one of the riders on the ground. And check out […]
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Playwright and Yorkshire-icon Alan Bennett is a national treasure but, 39 years too late, I wish to object to his first televised play. Of course, A Day Out, set in 1911, filmed in 1972 and shot in black and white, […]
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