Willard Sawyer
Willard Sawyer (* 1808 in Romney Marsh ; † February 13, 1892 in Deal ) was an English carpenter and designer of the first commercial four-wheeled Velocipede, a kind of forerunner of the bicycle that was moved by means of a crank.
The family moved to Dover when Willard was a child. A census mentions a Sawyer carpenter in Dover in 1838. In the 1840s, Sawyer became famous for his four-wheeled velocipedes around Dover. In 1851 Sawyer exhibited three copies at the Great Exhibition and in 1854 in the USA at the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations (1853) . Production orders for the Velocipede, which were controlled by means of a cable pull and articulated steering , came from all over the world, and the European aristocracy in particular showed great interest. In 1858 Sawyer published a catalog of the "Hand-Propeller and Double-Action Self-Locomotives", the prices of which ranged from £ 25 to £ 40, depending on the version ; Another catalog was published in 1863. In 1868, with the advent of the first penny farthing (high wheeled bikes with solid rubber tires), Sawyer ended his production in Dover and moved to nearby Deal (Kent) to open a small workshop there. In 1887 the workshop there was also closed and 50 copies were auctioned. Willard Sawyer is now considered to be the pioneer in the development of quadricycles .
literature
- Andrew Ritchie: King of the Road. Wildwood House, London 1975, ISBN 0-913668-42-7 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b dovermuseum.co.uk Sawyers Velocipede (accessed July 27, 2017)
- ↑ Andrew Ritchie, p. 40.
- ↑ Andrew Ritchie, p. 40.
- ↑ Andrew Ritchie, p. 39.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sawyer, Willard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English inventor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1808 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Romney Marsh |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 13, 1892 |
| Place of death | deal |