Illustration of the horse bicycle, because it appeared in Madeleine Ravier’s patent software filed in 1907. (Picture credit score Weirduniverse).
Each time I see a Colombian bicycle owner, small in dimension however big at coronary heart, climbing particular class ports in some European stage race, whereas leaving his opponents behind one after the other, I marvel at two issues. First, as I say, the large effort that knowledgeable bicycle owner is succesful of, no matter their nationality. Second, human ingenuity, succesful of making a mechanical gadget just like the bicycle, which manages to multiply the distances we journey with the only contribution of the power generated by our our bodies.
Nicely, as I can learn, firstly of the 20th century there was a French lady named Madeleine Ravier, which took the thought additional. If a bicycle owner is succesful of touring 100 kilometers a day relying solely on his “wonderful” legs …what couldn’t a horse do along with his 4 muscular and quick legs, if we construct him a motorbike that is as much as him?
Mentioned and carried out, impressed by the achievements of her fellow residents, athletes who confirmed their potential to the world since that first Tour de France in 1903, Madeleine offered a patent that – in idea – may make us journey at “animal” speeds for distances solely appropriate for quadrupeds. On the Web you possibly can nonetheless discover that patent, which though it’s in French, could be understood fairly effectively, so I’ve inspired myself to translate it into Spanish.
Man has understood the very important curiosity he had in creating the means to go sooner and additional; To do that, he enslaved animals for his or her use, acquired science, notably mechanics, and used it to make use of it to his liking, or nearly, on some of the completely different types of power, reminiscent of warmth, electrical energy, affinity chemistry.
Very not too long ago (lower than 50 years in the past), understanding the imperfection of his personal limbs, he offered them with cell mechanisms and composed cycles, units made up of 2 or three wheels between the legs. With these mild and easy organs, he has prodigiously elevated the vary of his actions with out the help of exterior power.
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Thus, it was doable to journey 370 kilometers in 12 hours (report of the bicycle owner Marcel Cadolle), and even 1,312 kilometers in 24 hours (report of the bicycle owner Émile Bouhours at a mean of 54,693 km / h), whereas different glorious athletes, merely with their limbs, they’d not obtain such excessive distances in 12 hours even when they had been Hibbird or Rowell.
(Translator’s notice: I’ve not discovered historic references of these two athletes from the early twentieth century on the web).
And what man has carried out for himself he can do for animals, or no less than some of them. There’s a solution to enhance the effectivity of its extremities by way of the insertion, between these members and the sector of motion, of mechanical units that obtain the reciprocating motion of the legs, reworking it into steady rotary motion and transmitting it to rolling elements. The consequence obtained can be utilized to make animals transfer man sooner and farther than has been carried out to this point utilizing beasts.
It’s a disgrace, however I’ve been unable to seek out extra related details about this creation by Madeleine Ravier. Was a prototype ever constructed? Might a horse pedal with all 4 legs on the identical time with out shedding its stability? What velocity may very well be achieved if one thing like this had been theoretically doable? Too many absurd questions, no less than as absurd as your personal
I’ve seen canine pedaling on their hindquarters on youtube, however I wager Ravier’s concept was merely impractical. To position a horse on such a torture gadget with out destroying it, it will be essential to sedate it, cowl its eyes, and raise it with a crane. I don’t even wish to think about the stress of the poor creature to be immobilized in such a factor.
The rest room as a life preserver, one other nice concept patented in 1981 by William O. Holmes. (Picture credit score: Naukas.com)
Oh, and in the event you assume that these foolish patents had been unique to the early twentieth century, then you definitely don’t know in regards to the case of William O. Holmes. In 1981, this Californian offered a “fanciful” concept. He mainly proposed turning the bathrooms into vents, and connecting one thing like a diving “snorkel” to the latrine, with the intention to have entry to “clear air” within the occasion of a fireplace. (I posted this insanity on this hyperlink again within the day).
I came upon by studying Weirduniverse.web
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