THE FTTOLCTTON

weights he would require, and what amount of them. It Mr. Ward weighed twelv stones he would want about a quarter a ton, with the forks of the proportions ~hown. In these circumstances it 1s ditheult to know whom less to envy, Mr. Ward or anyv unlucky person he might run against, The frst tricyele ever made (o the design of the Rev. Mr. Charsley, who has given arcat attention to designing tricycles for the usc of the lame, was made 1 1369, and was hand-driven by cranks. ** He that 15 down need fear no fall,” might have been Mr,

Charslev's watchword in placing his rider. Still, quaint as the machine looks, it was the the

forerunner of most successful hand-

MEY'S MACHINE,

driven tricycle cver produced. It was steered by a movement of the back against the broad guard betfore the steering wheel. Another American 1 1870—Mr. Mcey, of Buffalo., his invention 1s best conveved by his own drawing. Here we sce, doubtless,

onc of the original * Buffalo gals” in a smart trap, the motive

power of which 1s a sort of magui- fied squirrel-cage, i which two wretched dogs are expected to aallop, and, in the inventor's words, “will impart motion to the wheel and to the vchicle, as will be clearlyv understood.” Mr. Mey thoughtfully provides a whip, and marks it with a big, big D, al- though a mecans of rmchmg the dogs with it when they are encased in the wheel A B C must form the subject of another invention—and a clever one.

Still another American, a M. Croft, invented a fearful and won- derful engine in 1877, Really, 1t is not casy to believe that even a cycle inventor (and some of them arc mad cnough

distinguished himselt An idea of

([ 111

CYCLE 35

CROF T S MACHINE.

for anyching) could perpetrate such a thing as late as 1877, The ridery as the gentle reader may sce tor himsclf, was to punt himsclf along with a pair of poles—literally to punt the public highway, steering meanwhile by means of s teet in stirrups. Anidea of the fiery pace of this contrivance 1s skiltully L\p]L\\Ld by the fluttering beard i the inventor's picture:; but, notwith- standing his liberal use of the alphabet in the diagram, we fear that Mr. Croft flatters himself. We would almost back the dogs against him, or M. Julicn.

Soon the bonceshaker became a bicvele with a tall front and a small back wheel, wnd the hrst effective attempt to cope with the dangcer trom headers 1hcrcup(m Ccon- sequent was comprised m Singer’s Safety, the mvention of Mr, Lawson i 18758, The identical machine here represented was

LAWSON'S SAFETY MACHINE (HAI)E FOR VISCOUNT SHE

made for Viscount Sherbrooke—then Mr. Robert Lowe=—who, as o rider of the