In 1869 Magee, in Paris, made the entire bicycle of iron and steel, solid rubber tires and brakes followed, and the front wheel began to grow to larger size, until in 1879 the bicycle presented the form shown in Fig. 182. This placed the weight of the rider more directly over the drive wheel, and was known as the “vertical fork.” It gave good results but for the accidents from “headers,” to which it was especially liable. Means to overcome the danger were resorted to, and the “Star” bicycle represented such a construction. In this the high wheel was behind and the small one in front, and straps and ratchet wheels connected the pedals to the axle. In 1877 Rousseau, of Marseilles, removed the pedals from the wheel axle and applied the power to the axle by a chain extending from a sprocket wheel on the pedal shaft to a sprocket wheel on the wheel axle. By gradual steps, initiated in Starley’s “Rover” in 1880, (see Fig. 183), the high front wheel was reduced in size, until the proportions of the modern “Safety” (Fig. 184) have been obtained. Strange to say, these proportions have, through nearly a century of evolution, gone back to those employed in the old “Draisine,” where the two wheels were of the same size. The modern “Safety,” however, is quite a different machine. Its diamond frame of light but strong tubular steel, its ball bearings, its suspension wheels and pneumatic tires impart to the modern bicycle strength with lightness, and beauty with efficiency, to a degree scarcely attained by any other piece of organized machinery designed for such trying work. [Illustration: FIG. 183.--“ROVER,” 1880.] [Illustration: FIG. 184.--MODERN “SAFETY.”] The most important of all modern improvements on the bicycle was perhaps the pneumatic tire. This was not originally designed for the bicycle, but was patented in England by R. W. Thompson in 1845 and in the United States May 8, 1847, No. 5,104. Its application to the bicycle was made in 1889 by Dunlop, United States patent No. 435,995, Sept. 9, 1890, and 453,550, June 2, 1891. It furnishes not only an elastic bearing which cushions the jar, but also makes a broader tread that renders cycling on the soft roads of the country at once practical and delightful. The chainless wheel, which connects the axle of the pedal crank with the axle of the rear wheel by a shaft with bevel gears, is the most recent form exploited by the manufacturers, but it is doubtful whether it presents any points of superiority over the chain type. All of the parts of the bicycle have come in for a share of attention at the hands of inventors, differential speed gears and brakes having received especial attention. The Morrow hub brake, which applies friction to the rear wheel hub by back pressure on the pedal, is a popular modern form. The first back-pedal brake is shown in United States Pat. No. 418,142, to Stover & Hance, Dec. 24, 1889.