Tandem Penny Farthing - 1892

Illustration from an 1892 book on cycling

The 1892 book Wheels and wheeling; an indispensable handbook for cyclists, with over two hundred illustrations is from a time when the "Ordinary" (or Penny Farthing, a bicycle with a large front wheel and a very small rear wheel that was driven directly by pedals attached to the front wheel) was still somewhat in competition with the "Safety" - a safety bicycle being much more like the bicycle we know today.

The page with the description includes the following:

Muller Tandem Bicycle. The tandem roadster of the Muller pattern has been given a thorough trial by many different riders in and about New York, and in spite of its 64-inch gear with only 51-inch cranks, it climbed in good time all the hills ridden by the ordinaries and safeties, and went ahead of every-thing encountered on the road. The frame (on which Mr. Muller holds his patent) can be applied to any size wheel, and made its appearance about three seasons ago, when, fitted with two 56 Expert wheels, Mr. V. H. Muller and his brother rode it, defeating all tandem teams of prominence. Last spring they gave the frame a thorough trial on a pair of 50-inch Springfield Roadster driving wheels,and on it made a tour of Europe, where its novel lines attracted much attention among the cycle manufacturers.

Be that as it may, one doesn't see any of these around now. Apparently this is one of those ideas that just didn't catch on. One can imagine it had something to do with these being a paired fixed gear arrangement - no coasting. On the upside, it does appear that the rider in the rear has a brake. This would result in an unusual partnership, with the front rider responsible for steering and the rear rider for braking.

A "Sociable Bicycle" from 1892 in 1922

Human interest photo from Washington Times issue, April 21 1922

This sort of bicycle was introduced in the 1890s as a way of resolving various issues likely perceived with men and women sharing conventional tandems - basically, shouldn't the woman ride in front? One attempt to deal with this was to rig up handlebars for the rider in back that also controlled the steering. Anyway, the Punnett "companion side-seated bicycle" was an attempt to solve the problem by putting the riders on a single two-wheel frame bicycle next to each other.

This bicycle never caught on, of course, presumably because of the manufacturing cost combined with the dexterity to ride it (or perhaps just the appearance that dexterity would be required?) and the relative simplicity of a more standard tandem, despite the "who sits in front" issue.

Thus in the 1920s this bicycle would be featured as a human interest item - although I think the Washington Times got the date wrong; I think these bicycles were introduced only in 1896, not 1892.


Ad for side-by-side Punnett tandem shown from 1896

Despite ads in publications and articles written about this clever bicycle, it never caught on.

One comment - the age of the bike isn't that big a deal, at least not for a well-maintained bicycle.


Thirty year-old bicycle that I ride much of the time to and from work

Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?

So here is an item from the Library of Congress with more quite a lot of metadata, but somehow I had not noticed it while searching for "bicycles" but found it while searching for "cycling" - the title is "cycling" so it came right up. (I confess, as photographs go, it isn't much . . . ) If I understand the "summary" correctly, this item is likely a posed photograph in order to create the cover of some sheet music.

Alas despite all this metadata, one searchable term is misspelled - "tandem" bicycle is rendered as "tanden bicycle" - when (or it feels like, if) I get back to working I will suggest it is corrected. (Somewhat to my surprise, we have a photograph of Danny Kaye riding a tandem bicycle from 1958 available publicly. Anyway, a search on loc.gov of "tandem bicycle" does bring up results, just not this one.) The digitized item showing a couple riding in front of Grant's tomb was made from a copy negative - that is, it is a copy of a copy - which explains some, but I suspect not all, of why it isn't a digital image showing much detail.)


Riding in front of Grant's tomb

Title Cycling
Creator(s) Scott & Van Altena, copyright claimant
Date Created/Published c1907.
Medium 1 photographic print.
Summary Lantern slide proof print, probably for a song. Photograph shows a smiling young couple on the road riding a tanden bicycle near Grant's Tomb in New York City; the young woman at the front looks partially back towards the man.
Reproduction Number LC-USZ62-21830 (b&w film copy neg.)
Rights Advisory No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number SSF - Bicycles and Tricycles [item] [P&P]
Repository Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes
* No. 10.
* Copyright by Scott & Van Altena, New York, N. Y.
* Title from item.
Subjects
-Bicycles & tricycles--New York (State)--New York--1900-1910.
-Cyclists--New York (State)--New York--1900-1910.
-Cycling--New York (State)--New York--1900-1910.
-Tombs & sepulchral monuments--New York (State)--New York--1900-1910.
-General Grant National Memorial (New York, N.Y.)
Format
-Lantern slides--Reproductions--1900-1910.
-Photographic prints--1900-1910.
Collections Miscellaneous Items in High Demand
Bookmark This Record: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011661553/

Bicycles Built for Two (1896)

"Safety" bicycles that could have two (or more) riders were developed quickly after their introduction in the late 1880s. In addition to tandem two seaters bicycles much like we see today, there were multi-rider bikes for as many as ten. The Orient Quad is an example from the Orient Bicycle Company - they specialized in such novelty bikes. And there was the Punnett side-by-side tandem in 1896 - I have often wondered what it must have been like to try to stay upright on a such a bike.

Recently I found issues of The Referee and Cycle Trade Journal: a Weekly Record and Review of Cycling and the Cycle Trade available online

Perusing the first issue in a vast 1,400 page plus bound volume of issues (the weekly issue for May 7, 1896 to be exact - Volume 17, Number 1) I found several more exotic examples of tandem (or tandem like?) bicycles whose designs do not come down to us today.


What's wrong with this design?

At first glance this is much like a "trail-a-bike" of today, where the back end of a basic bicycle, missing the front wheel and any steering, is attached to the seat post of the "lead" bicycle as kind of trailer (with seat, non-steering handlebars, and pedals and drive train for the rear wheel). The big difference is that upon close examination of this photo it is clear that in this design the bike in the rear follows the front bike in a fixed straight line, not like a trailer. Crazy.


A slightly more practical design

Here we have a full page ad for a "do it yourself" version of the side-by-side tandem bicycle. Most of the full page ads in the publication are from larger companies, so they must have been trying to get people's attention.


Closer view - that it is shown with youngsters is an interesting choice

This is not such a bad design if I understand correctly how it would work - it appears that there are connections for the steering so that the steering is "coordinated." The statement is that this "coupler" is "flexible" in some way, but it seems doubtful that one would lean into a turn, so where is the flexing? But as a way to get a new adult rider on a bike for a short ride, it seems OK. The weight seems a little daunting - presumably when they say "adds only five pounds to the weight of each machine" it means the various coupling bits and pieces total ten pounds - so two 25 pound bikes attached in this way would run up to 60 pounds. Hmm.

Again, not a design that we see today.

1899 "Book on Wheeling" & Tandem Photographs

Title page of Dr. Neesen's Book on Wheeling

Dr. Neesen's Book on Wheeling is a rather extreme (and late, since the cycling craze was ending by this time) example of the "physician as guide to all-things-cycling" approach to cycling advice. Note his particular qualifications as a specialist in women's medicine:

Assistant to the Chair of Gynecology, Long Island College
Hospital ; Member Women's Hospital Society ; Kings Co. Medical Society, Long Island Medical Society, Kings Co. Medical Association ; Lately House Surgeon at the Woman's Hospital in the State of New York ; Recently House Surgeon at Prof. Martin's Privat-Anstalt in Berlin ; Member Physical Education Society of New York.

He includes some interesting photographs of men and women cyclists in his book - here are those of tandems and riders. I have included the original captions, which in keeping with his rather directive sort of advice, usually find some fault with the models' posture.



Above is the only photograph in the book of this particular tandem - although the front rider is a woman, the frame has a continuous top tube rather than a step-through portion for the woman rider, which could be either the front section or the rear. (This author takes the slightly radical position that women, properly attired, should be fine riding a "diamond frame wheel.")



Above is the first of two photos of this tandem that has a step-through frame section in front. Note that this tandem (and the preceding) have the ability for the back cyclist to steer also - how this worked in practice, one can only wonder. It certainly negated some of the advantage in the normal tandem arrangement, where the "stoker" in the rear can focus all if his (or her) energy on pedaling. Presumably the assumption was that the man could easily see over the woman in front, but it doesn't look that way here. Many tandems at the time had the step-through portion in the rear, in which case the rear rider could not steer (at least not in examples I've seen). There was an apparent tension between the version that was more socially acceptable (woman in front) versus what was easier to engineer (man in front).



To ride a "diamond frame wheel" Dr. Neesen advises wearing a short divided skirt, but apparently this is too short.

Bicycle Built for Four (1898)

Orient Quad bicycle built for four, from the Library of Congress photograph collections.

Just for fun. Can't figure out why I hadn't see this before ~

Apparently Orient was known particularly for making tandem and other multiple riders bikes, such as this quad. There is a picture of an Orient "built for ten" that was presumably a stunt of sorts.

Quadricycle Fire Engine (1896)

Article in the April 25, 1896 issue of Scientific American.


Figure 1 - Quadricycle Fire Engine

A QUADRICYCLE FIRE ENGINE

We illustrate herewith a quadricycle fire engine that attracted considerable attention at the recent bicycle exhibition at Paris, and which presents unquestionable advantages over the hand engines in use in all places that are too small to afford the luxury of steam fire apparatus.

As shown by our engravings (Figs. 1 and 2), the engine consists of two tandem bicycles coupled by crosspieces in front and behind and having but a single steering post in front. The free space between the two frames is occupied at the front by a hose reel, in the center by a rotary pump, and at the back by a coupling that allows the pump to be put in communication with a water tap.

This entire affair weighs scarcely more than 180 or 188 pounds, which represents about 88 pounds per man. [This per man figure does not seem right, whether the riders' weight is factored in or not, but is what is stated in the original.] It will be seen that upon such a machine four trained cyclists can reach a fire at a speed that could never be attained by fire engines drawn by horses.


Figure 2 - Ready for Operations

As soon as the engine has reached a favorable position, the four men jump from their seats, and, while two of them adjust the couplings, a third unreels the hose, and the fourth, turning down the jointed support, raises the back of the machine and throws the pump into gear.

The four men afterward get into their saddles and pedal in situ with a mean velocity that causes the pump to discharge about 4,500 gallons an hour in the form of a stream 100 feet in length in a horizontal direction and about 75 feet upwardly. These figures are those obtained at the trials made at the Palace of Industry on the 23d of last December.

All the preparatory maneuvers require scarcely more than two or three minutes. If, on another hand, we take into consideration the fact that such machines, propelled by men with some little training, can reach a fire in a quarter or a third of the time made by ordinary hand engines, we shall realize how great an interest attaches to the use of them in country places where a fire so easily assumes the importance of a disaster by reason of the tardiness with which the first help comes. Everything, therefore, leads to the belief that this invention is destined to completely revolutionize the fire apparatus of small towns and villages.

An interesting notion - I don't believe this caught on in the U.S. In a radius of travel less than a couple of miles and with relatively flat terrain, this could make sense, but notwithstanding the advantages of quick response cited, one can imagine fire fighting personnel would prefer not to pedal to fires.


Video from Library of Congress showing the competing horse-centric approach

Advertisement for the Side-by-Side Tandem (1896)

In an earlier post I described and presented information about the Punnett Tandem Bicycle as described in the September 4, 1896 Scientific American - in the same issue at the back is an ad for this bicycle.


Forty pounds in weight and only $150!

While it is supposed to be reasonably easy to mount this thing, one can't help noticing that both gentlemen mentioned in the ad are noted for trick riding.

Side-by-Side Tandem (1896)

From the January 4, 1896 issue of Scientific American

Full text of the article describing this side-by-side tandem bicycle that goes with the above illustration:

THE PUNNETT COMPANION SIDE SEATED BICYCLE.

The bicycle has now reached a typical construction from which there seems to be slight tendency to deviate. Absolute novelties beyond the details are more and more rare. The companion side seated bicycle which we represent is. however, one of the novelties of the year. The tandem bicycle, which has met with considerable success where the desire is to have company on a ride, is more or less criticised on account of the position of the riders, one of whom must be behind the other. In the bicycle which we illustrate it is proposed to have the two riders seated side by side, as in the old-fashioned "sociable" tricycle, and yet to have the two riders carried by two wheels only. The two cuts are self-explanatory. The long axle of the rear wheal enables the use of two sprockets at its extremities so far apart as to permit of each one being acted upon through a separate pair of sprockets, each actuated by a separate rider. There is a triple head and a duplex frame, the latter carrying two saddles placed side by side at a proper distance apart for two riders to occupy also side by side.

It is said that a difference of 100 pounds weight in the two riders is not noticeable, and that a person who is ignorant of riding can be taken out on this wheel with perfect safety. The system of mounting is peculiar. For the first one who mounts, the wheel is inclined to one side and this rider takes his or her place on the lower saddle. The machine is then pulled back to an upright position and the second rider mounts by the pedal, and so the start is made. The dismount is made in the same way, reversing, of course, the operations. The two saddle posts are connected, it will be observed, by a crossbar. At the center of the crossbar is a special socket. When a single person fa riding the wheel the saddle is transferred to the central position and the rider sitting there drives the machine by one of the right hand and one of the left hand set of pedals. This, of coruse, produces considerable lost motion in the pedal action, but it at least is possible for a single rider to take care of and to drive the wheel to and from the place of appointment with his friend. It is not a wheel depending absolutely on the presence of two riders. The wheel shown in the illustrations is made by the Punnett Cycle Mfg. Co., Rochester, N.Y.

I can't work out if this really could work or not - apparently it did, but it seems difficult to manage, to say the least.

Original article is here

Tally-Ho Tandem Bike (1896)

An ad in Cycling Life for a tandem bike with a somewhat unusual design by today's standards, anyway.



This rather simple design adds a new triangle with seat behind the seat post for the (now) front rider, with the rear rider somewhat aft of the rear wheel. The distribution of weight to the rear wheel would be severe - could this handle at all well? Presumably this would be unrideable without someone on the front seat. And the wear on the rear wheel's spokes and tire would seem likely to create problems. Particularly unusual is the chain that connects the rear rider's handlebars to the front rider's, so either (or both) can steer.

Another version of this cycle was a step through model for the front (woman) rider, a "courting tandem." The man in the rear could pedal and steer his sweetheart who rides in front. Thus having the rear seat slightly higher was a "feature" since the rear rider could then see over the front rider's head to do steering while seeing where they were going.

Another blog entry describing this type of tandem with more photos and includes a modern-day attempt at one - the modern version was intended to take advantage of possible advantages as a tandem track bike (I think). The rear wheel on the modern version looks like a lot of effort went into being it extremely strong.



Above, a model with a similar approach to the back rider, from a different company. Not sure what the need for a six seater bike was in the 1890s - there were certainly three and four seat pace bikes that racers would draft behind to set records, but six seats?? Without riders the bike weighed 124 pounds . . .