Pierre Lallement

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Lallement on his invention (around 1870)

Pierre Lallement (born October 25, 1843 in Pont-à-Mousson , † August 29, 1891 in Boston ) is regarded by some as the inventor of the bicycle .

Life

According to one version, the wheelwright Lallement saw a trolley in 1862 , inspired by this he built a crank with pedals on the axle of the front wheel . According to another version, Lallement went to Paris in 1863 and worked with Pierre Michaux on the production of the Michauline . It cannot be determined whether Lallement attached the crank to the walking machine before Michaux. What is certain is that both were involved in the basic design of the Michaulinen.

In July 1865, Lallement went to the United States and settled in Ansonia, Connecticut , where he introduced a version of the Michauline. He filed a patent application for the pedal bicycle in April 1866. It was granted on November 20, 1866. His patented construction plans show a vehicle very similar to the first Michauline with its serpentine frame .

Since he did not succeed in starting a promising production of his machine in the USA, Lallement returned to Paris in 1868 shortly after the Michaux bikes had sparked the first bicycle enthusiasm, which spread from France across Europe and America. Lallement then went back to the United States. He lived in Brooklyn and was employed by Albert Pope , who had acquired his patent in 1879 and created a bicycle empire in the United States in the 1890s by purchasing all bicycle patents. Lallement died lonely in Boston in 1891 at the age of 47.

  • Lallement-Velocipede (around 1866)

  • US Patent No. 59,915 issued November 20, 1866

  • snake-shaped frame of the Lallement Velocipede (around 1868)

literature

  • Max JB Rauck, Gerd Volke, Felix R. Paturi: By bike through two centuries. The bicycle and its history . 4th edition. AT Verlag, Aarau et al. 1988, ISBN 3-85502-038-8 .
  • Andrew Ritchie: King of the Road . Wildwood House, London 1975, ISBN 0-913668-42-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ New York Times True inventor of the bicycle
  2. ↑ Max JB Rauck, p. 42.
  3. ^ Ritchie, p. 55.
  4. ↑ U.S. Patent No. 59,915
personal data
SURNAME Lallement, Pierre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French inventor and holder of a US patent for a pedal-powered velocipede
DATE OF BIRTH October 25, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Pont-à-Mousson
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1891
Place of death Boston