On This Day in the Old West October 10

 On October 10, 1899, inventor Isaac R. Johnson lodged his patent for a folding bicycle. This was the first to have a recognizably modern diamond frame, which is the pattern still used in 21^st Century bikes. This design improved comfort and speed, as the chain drive was transferred to the non-steering rear wheel, allowing for “smooth, relaxed, and injury-free pedaling.” Earlier bicycle designs were difficult to pedal while turning due to “the misalignment of rotational plans of leg and pedal,” or, in other words, you were pedaling one way and trying to steer in another. Trousers and skirts frequently caught in the chains, and accidents were common. The first “safety bicycle” was created in 1865, by John Kemp Starley, though it was never patented.

The pneumatic tire and diamond frame improved rider comfort but are not necessarily a crucial design or safety feature. A hard rubber bicycle tire would be just as rideable, though bone-jarring. Johnson’s design allows for “a lighter weight and more simple construction and maintenance, hence a lower price.” This made the bicycle affordable to the public and created a craze in the 1890s.

Johnson was born in New York in 1812. He wasn’t the first inventor to create a bike frame, just the one to perfect it. He was the first African American to invent and patent the frame, which is most similar to the bikes we use today. What made this design so unique was that it could be easily taken apart or folded. Johnson marketed his bicycle as “convenient for travels and vacation.” He originally filed the patent in April, and that paperwork gives us most of our information about the inventor. At the time, he lived in Manhattan, and he classified his invention as an improved version of a bicycle frame, noting “its ability to be placed in small storage areas or a truck.”

The bicycle came with instructions, notating each of its parts. In the section where the reason for the patent is given, Johnson writes “a steering-head section and a frame having a slot-and-stud connection for detachably uniting,” and when asked what made his invention different, he said it was “a bicycle-frame having a front and rear sheath or tube-section, and a steering-post sleeve and seat-post tube to which the sheaths are removably connected.”

Bicycles were originally designed as velocipedes, pedal-less versions of the modern bicycle. Riders simply sat upon the bike and walked or ran along, using their feet to propel themselves. Inventor Matthew Cherry, creator of the tricycle, made the first improvements to the design. In 1899, Jerry Certain patented “various parcel carriers” that could be attached to a bicycle, followed shortly afterwards by Johnson’s frame design patent.

After the Civil War, bicycles were tested at length. The U.S. Military had the all-Black 25^th Infantry Bicycle Corps ride bikes 1,900 miles from Montana to Missouri. During this trek, the soldiers tested the bicycle’s cross-country suitability, cycling the Rocky Mountains and enduring extreme weather conditions. They often traveled off-road as well, making an average speed of 8 miles per hour and taking 41 days to finish their trip. 

Your characters may well have owned or at least ridden some sort of bicycle if they lived after 1817, when the velocipede was invented. The front-wheel driven bike was created in the 1860s and featured the enlarged front wheel device commonly called the “penny-farthing” or “boneshaker,” which is so often shown in old photos and illustrations.