The Eternal

Authors Note

Many of the great inventions in use today date from the reign of Queen Victoria in the nineteenth century.

The first real bicycle was made by Kirkpatrick Macmillan of Dumfriesshire in 1839 and was the first to be propelled without the rider’s feet touching the ground.

But the bicycle became the means of conveyance for millions of people in 1885, when it was manufactured by Starley of Coventry with wheels of equal diameter and pneumatic tyres, supplied by Dunlop.

In 1847 a train ran between London and Birmingham at a top speed of 75 m.p.h. The first typewriter was used in 1867, the telephone in 1876 and the phonograph in 1877.

As early as 1894 there was a device not unlike today’s hang-gliders and it was reported that ‘gliding through the air might become a sport someday comparable with cycling.’