Künzelsau push rod wheel
The Künzelsau push stick wheel is a single-track two - wheeler with a mechanical drive, which was designed and built around 1850 by the Künzelsau blacksmith Heinrich Färber. The driving machine with its unusual drive technology was created more than a decade before the invention of the pedal-powered bicycle and thus the oldest known velocipede in which the feet were permanently detached from the ground and no longer used to maintain balance .
construction
The push rod wheel is driven with the arms via a long lever to which two push rods or sticks that taper downwards and form a two-pronged fork are attached. When the drive lever is pulled towards the body, the rods are pressed against the ground and backwards and in turn move the vehicle forwards. To keep the two-wheeler moving, you need to move the drive lever quickly back and forth. The push rod wheel is steered with the feet using notches attached to the front wheel suspension.
The Künzelsau push rod wheel, which has been preserved in the original, is made entirely of wrought iron except for the iron-studded wooden wheels, the handle of the drive lever and the leather saddle padded with horsehair and accordingly weighs almost 50 kilograms. It is 120 cm high, 56 cm wide and 182 cm long; the diameter of the front wheel is 42 cm and that of the rear wheel 80 cm.
background
The drive method itself was not really an innovation: like the crank drive, the drive with push rods or “Jungnickel levers” for multi-lane vehicles had been known for a long time. Johann Carl Bauer, for example, used it in his "Suggestions for Improvement" published in 1817 for Karl Drais' driving machine . However, this Bauer velocipede was a three-wheeled driving machine. Bauer wrote: "... this wagon must have two wheels at the back to make balancing with the arms superfluous." Balancing a two- wheeled vehicle with feet off the ground was just as unimaginable for Bauer as it was for most of his contemporaries.
At the world exhibition in London in 1851 Willard Sawyer exhibited a four-wheeler for two people, with the person sitting in the back using push sticks with his hands. As a result, mainly in England and Scotland, three- and four-wheel driving machines were designed, which were then also provided with mechanical drives - be it by means of levers, cranks or push rods - and which enjoyed great popularity in England around 1860.
However, the Künzelsau push rod wheel is the first vehicle to combine mechanical drive, single-track construction and balancing . Instead of pushing himself off the ground with his feet and also supporting himself - as with Karl Drais' walking machine - Heinrich Färber rode with his legs off the ground. The real "fear of balancing" ( Hans-Erhard Lessing ) prevailing at the time prevented other designers from taking this step or even thinking about it for a long time.
reception
According to the local newspaper Kocher- & Jagstbote , Färber presented his “Véloziped” in September 1859 or 1869 at an “Agricultural District Festival” in Ingelfingen . Above all, the "ease and speed with which one could move with this little machine" aroused admiration.
However, the system was not very practical and could not prevail. Heinrich Färber's push rod had no further impact on the development of the bicycle. Hand (crank) driven bicycles are only used for special purposes today.
Todays situation
The original is now in the Künzelsau Municipal Collection under inventory number 1993/15. Since April 2012, it has been on loan at the German Automobile Museum in Langenburg . In 2004, a largely faithful replica was made.
literature
- Walter Euhus : The Künzelsau push rod wheel . In: The bone shaker. Magazine for lovers of historical bicycles , issue 31, 2/2004. Langenhagen 2004, p. 19.
Web links
- Pictures of the replica on the RSV Wendlingen website
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Walter Euhus: The Künzelsauer push rod wheel.
- ↑ Andreas Jung (e) nickel: Key to Mechanics. Nuremberg 1661.
- ^ A b Tony Hadland, Hans-Erhard Lessing: Bicycle Design. MIT Press, Cambridge & London 2014, ISBN 978-0-262-02675-8 .
- ↑ Johann Carl Siegesmund Bauer: Description of the von Drais'schen driving machine and some attempts to improve it. Nuremberg 1817. (Facsimile reprint as: Hans-Erhard Lessing (Ed.): The first two-wheeler drove in Mannheim. Mannheim 2001., p. 39.
- ↑ David Gordon Wilson, Jim Papadopoulos: Bicycling Science. 3rd edition, MIT Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0262731546 ( digitized version ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and remove then this note. ).
- ↑ a b c Ingo Gabor et al .: Lust for history - selected moments from the Künzelsau past. The Künzelsau Municipal Collection visits the Hirschwirtscheuer. Swiridoff, Künzelsau 2005, ISBN 3-89929-059-3 , p. 56 f.
- ^ Jürgen Hermann Rauser: Ingelfinger Heimatbuch. 1. Book City History. Heimatbücherei Hohenlohe Volume 2, Ingelfingen 1980, p. 268.
- ↑ Push stick wheel approx. 1850 on rsv-wendlingen.de
