The FEvolution o the Cycle.

|0 speak of the wonderful $ Xt strides made 1 cvele con- struction within twenty vears or so, to comparc the modern racing, air-tyred, ball-bearing,

— tubular racing safety with the boneshaker of 1868 or the hobby-horse of 1820 to rhapsodisc upon the heights to which the mechan- 1ism of the cycle has now been carried, to speculate upon its future development —thesc things are common-places. Let us, while touching lightly upon the de- scent of the modern cycle 1n a direct line, chiefly amuse our- selves by contem- plating the various extinct specics—those developments of the original germ which have somehow taken the wrong turning n the course of evolution, have then stopped, and, as rare fossils, are now only looked at as raritics and curiosities,

The records of the Patent Offices, both here and in America, contain drawings of many hundreds of these quaint articles, many—perhaps most—ot which probably never grew bevond existence on o paper. Also, there were gathered together last year, by the Stanley Bicvele Club, a quaint collection of actual existing fossils—masses of machinery actually constructed and now forgotten. Of members of this collection, now dispersed, and never to come together again, we shall reproduce a number of photographs ; also we shall reproduce many of the outline drawings buried in the Patent Oifice, with all their garnishment of indicator letters and figures, whether we allude to thosc wonderful signs or not.

When the idea first took form of cn- abling a man to travel by his own lcg power, assisted by wheels, none can say ; nor 151t known who first attempted to put the notion to practice. Certain it s that, in 1761, a description of a machine to travel

OVENDEN’S MACHINE.

without horscs appeared in Zh%e Cnirersal Jagazine ; and since this machime—in- vented by one Ovenden—is alluded to as “ the best that has hitherto been invented,” it is pretty obvious that Mr. Ovenden had his predecessors in this particular depart- ment of design, though of them we know little. Here 1s Mr. Ovenden'’s machine.

The unfortunate tootman (whose over- worked legsare mer- citully hidden from sight m a sort of tank), supporting himsclf by a strap, was expected to drive that immense wood- en carriage and 1ts contents * with case "’ six miles an hour, and with “a peculiar cxertion "' (quite so) nine or ten miles an hour. The owner of the cquipage, mean- time, gaily stcered with a pair of reins. We hear nothing further of Mr. Ovenden and his machine. Can he have fallen a victim to a sceret assassination committee ot foot- men ?

In 1801 a gentus of the name of Bolton turncd upn i America, and invented another quaint engine. We reproduce his own drawing from the patent specification, indi- cator letters and ally =o that his representa- tives may not accuse us of doing his work an 1njustice. We can justly admire the

BOLTON'S MACHINE,

foresight of the nventor i ieprescnting the unhappy operator in rolled-up shirt-