Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884 — John Shaqi
Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884Various
Science
Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884
Various
Science -- Periodicals
There remains one machine which must be considered separately, for it
cannot be classed with any other. This is the Otto bicycle. My opinion
of this machine is so pronounced that I do not care to state it fully. I
shall merely give the reasons why I prefer it to anything else, and in
so doing I shall be taking the first step in the discussion, in which it
will be interesting to hear from riders of other machines the reasons
for their preference.
In the first place, the evils of a third or little wheel, the cause of
trouble in all tricycles, are avoided. There is none of the vibration
which makes all other machines almost unbearable to Ottoists, vibration
which tricyclists have learnt to consider a necessary accompaniment of
cycling, but which has, no doubt, been diminished by the use of the
spring support of the front steering Humber. It would be presumptuous
in me to make any remarks on the effect of this vibration on the human
system; we shall all be anxious to hear what our Chairman has to say on
this point. By having only two wheels, we have only two tracks, so that
we can travel at a fair speed along those places in the country called
roads, which consist of alternate lines of ruts and stones, where a
three-track machine could not be driven, and where, from the quantity
of loose limestone in the ruts, a little wheel of a two-track tricycle
would be likely to suffer. By having no little wheel, we can ride in
dirty weather without having the rest of our machine pelted with mud, so
that cleaning takes less time than it does with anything else. As I have
already remarked, the small wheel is the culprit which makes the bicycle
and tricycle drive so heavily on a soft road. The ease with which the
Otto can therefore be run through the mud astonishes every one. Having
no little wheel, we can obtain the full advantage of the high 56
inch wheel, which almost every one prefers. As I have ridden all
combinations, from a 50 inch geared up to 60 inch, to a 60 inch geared
level, I can speak from experience of the increased comfort to be
derived from these large wheels, though for speed only they do not
compare with the smaller and lighter wheels geared up. A further point
gained by the use of two wheels only is the fact that the whole weight
of machine and rider is on the driving-wheel, as it is also on the
steering-wheel, so that by no possibility can the wheels be made to slip
in the driving, or to fail in steering from want of pressure upon them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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