BIRTH OF THE BICYCLE

A dazzling gallery of early run-ups to the modern “safety” bike, with breezy commentary.

Nelson begins with the “clunky” German velocipede of 1817. While taking a cavalier approach to rhyme and meter, she chronicles successive inventions and refinements that at last delivered a vehicle that was able to handle rough American roads and was available to the general populace: “Women especially, were off with a zoom / in split skirts and high boots and bold pantaloons.” They were also cheap enough to go from being “just a toy for the wealthier classes” to “pedal-powered freedom / for the big, bustling masses.” The bouncy narrative is rich in specific references to inventors and early mechanisms. In vividly evocative galleries, races, and crowded street scenes, Bruno provides precisely detailed images of huge-wheeled penny farthings and other antique models, generally rattling past astonished spectators as beleaguered riders struggle to maintain control. Women strike confident poses, many of the men sport stylish mustaches and mutton chops beneath elegant top hats, and all the human figures, including dark-skinned ones in several scenes, look like fashion plates from various periods of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In her prose recap, the author notes that bicycles still provide economical, eco-friendly transportation. “Together,” she concludes, “we could pedal our way to a happier, healthier world.”

Wheels out a chapter in the history of technology that merits greater recognition.