He did this by adding cranks to the rear wheel which were connected to swinging pedals. This does not much resemble the drive system that is currently used today but it was an important advancement in bicycle development. He called his vehicle a velocipede (Whitt 8). .
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Michaux velocipede, 1855 (Birth . 2).
The major advances in the design and drive system of the bicycle were made in the thirty year period following Macmillan's development of the velocipede. Pierre Michaux and his brother Ernest developed the front-pedaled velocipede in 1855. They were iron workers who opened a carriage shop in Paris (Perry 19). Together they began experimenting with bicycles and came up with the idea of putting the crank on the front wheel. When they had successfully created the front driven velocipede they organized factories in France to produce their product. They refined the frame design and began to make velocipede out of iron rather than wood. In their new design, the front wheel was larger than the rear wheel. This was because the pedaling force was on the front wheel. This design made steering the velocipede somewhat awkward because the riders leg would constantly be hitting the front wheel as the rider was turning. Pierre Michaux was the person credited with popularizing the velocipede in Britain, the US, and France (Perry 20). .
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High Wheeler, 1871 (Birth . 2).
When the Franco-Prussian war began, all French factories were required to shift production to armaments. Because of this, in the 1870's James Starley began to manufacture bicycles in Britain. He developed the high-wheel bicycle which became popular throughout Europe. He also developed spoked wheels and the cross-tangent method of spoking which is still in use today (Whitt 13-14). This made bicycle wheels lighter and easier to keep true. Other important developments around this time were the use of rubber on the wheels, ball bearings in the hubs and steering tube, and hollow frame and forks.
