I have tried the principle, but could not get much out of it. If there is anything in it at all it would be quite valuable; but I am inclined to the opinion that the inventor relied rather too much on his theory and not enough on actual practice. Notice that the handle-bar, trunk of the body, arms, and saddle are all within one system, there being no power to steer except in the action between the trunk and feet, instead of between the arms and trunk, as in other machines. A new machine has been favorably noticed of late which strikes me as a modification of the German’s principle, or rather as a combination of that with the old plan of steering. In this device there is some motion between the saddle and the handles, as of old, and in addition thereto we find a motion between the saddle and the pedals, which is intended possibly to combine all of the good elements. The cut explains itself. [Illustration: The “Rothigiesser” modification.] But to return to our mutton. The important features which have compelled us to recognize with favor this most homely and awkward-looking machine—the modern rear-driving Safety—are, first, the safety element, and, secondly, the advantage of being more nearly over the work, these two features including many minor characteristics. Then there are a number of independent peculiarities which can hardly be said to necessarily belong to this type of machine, but which are still adopted in it, such, for instance, as gearing up and down, foot-rests for coasting, etc. Until recently there did not seem to be any great fault in the machine except its looks, but a controversy has arisen which is not only extremely important but is so far unsettled; I refer to the discussion of the _side-slip_, which, in showing the number of explanations that different observers will give for the same set of facts, has been not unmixed with an element of the humorous. [6] Since the subject of a patent. CHAPTER XV. THE SIDE-SLIP OF THE SAFETY. The question of side-slip is not entirely new; it was first mooted in connection with the Safety of the Kangaroo type, which had a driver of from thirty-six to forty inches in front of a rear wheel of eighteen or twenty inches, as will be noticed in the cut of this machine given hereinafter. Now, to come to the specific features supposed to account for the side-slip, note that, in order to make room for the sprocket-wheels, the cranks had to be unusually wide apart and, by the necessary construction of the machine, also very low down; in other words, the machine had a very wide tread, swinging very close to the ground. The slip of this wheel was something fearful to behold, and its cause was supposed to be fully explained by the peculiarities of construction just noted, in accordance with a theory which, though religiously believed in at the time, has of late been somewhat shaken, and which we now proceed to develop.