The History of Bicycles: From Hobby Horse to Two-Wheeled Revolution
A volcanic eruption in 1815 killed off horses across Europe, and from that crisis emerged the Laufmaschine — the two-wheeled ancestor of the modern bicycle. From the bone-shaking velocipede of Paris to John Kemp Starley's safety bicycle, from pneumatic tires that finally made cycling accessible to everyone, to the women who rode their way out of corsets and into suffrage — the bicycle's history is far stranger and more consequential than most people realize. It also helped the Wright Brothers fly.
