By Patrick Allitt, Emory University
The man who made the most decisive breakthrough in the improvement of mass production technology was Albert Pope, a bicycle manufacturer. He made, for the first time, complete interchangeability of parts possible. Each component was made according to such minute tolerances that any one of them would fit onto any one of the finished product.
Pope’s Pioneering Plans
Pope pioneered trade shows, and he held the first bicycle trade show in 1883. He also pioneered the idea of a stratified market. Rather than simply producing one kind of bicycle, he’d produce a very lavish one for the most wealthy customers, and then progressively more modest models.
It was Pope who first attached pneumatic tires to bicycles in place of the hard rubber strips that had been the old kind of tires, and it was he who introduced ball bearings for the wheels and cranks of bicycles, all of which were going to be vital improvements in the later development of motorcars.
The Evolution of Bicycles
There was a great American bicycle craze in the 1890s. The very first bicycles—velocipedes—had looked a little bit like contemporary bikes but without any pedals. They were simply made of two wheels attached to a frame and some handlebars, and riders simply sat astride them and walked along the road by pushing against the roadway with their feet—primitive devices.
The second generation—called “penny farthings” or “ordinaries”—were the bikes that had very big front wheels, and tiny back wheels, and they were dangerous to ride. The rider was far up above the ground—six or seven feet above the ground, too scary for most people to ride, because when you fell, you fell a long way.
The kind of thing we recognize as a bicycle, which in the early days was called a “safety bicycle”, was perfected in 1880s, and already by 1890 the design of bicycles in all the basic proportions looked very much the way a bicycle still does today. They were easy to ride, relatively safe to ride, and much superior to their predecessors.
This is a transcript from the video series A History of the United States, 2nd Edition. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
The League of American Wheelmen
One of the problems that Pope encountered early on as he was manufacturing bicycles was that the quality of roads was bad. Most roads in America were dirt tracks. In cities, sometimes, they were cobbled streets, but they were crisscrossed by streetcar lines, and it was dangerous if your bicycle wheels got stuck in the ruts of the streetcar line.
Pope was, therefore, one of the founders of an organization called the League of American Wheelmen, a cyclists’ lobby group petitioning for improvement in the quality of American roads. The League of American Wheelmen had gained an enormous added impetus, of course, once motorcars began to be deployed on the road at the very, very end of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century.
Bicycle: An Inspiring Invention
Now, the bicycle was an important invention in its own right. It also inspired many other inventors. For example, the Wright brothers, the world’s first aviators, were bicycle repairmen. Their very first plane had that spindly, open look of a bicycle.
What about the effects on consumers of having a bicycle? They caused a great deal of interest, as can be seen in this quote from an article in the Atlantic Monthly which comes from 1898, written by a commentator called W.J. McGee. He said:
A typical American device is the bicycle. It long remained a toy, or a vain luxury. Re-devised in this country, it inspired inventors and captivated manufacturers, and native genius made it a practical machine for the multitude. Now its users number millions, and it is sold in every country. Typical too is the bicycle in its effects on national character. It first aroused invention, next stimulated commerce, and then developed individuality, judgment, and prompt decision on the part of its users, more rapidly and completely than any other device, for although association with machines of any kind developed character, the bicycle is the easy leader of other machines in shaping the mind of its rider, and transforming itself and its rider into a single thing. Better than other results is this, that the bicycle has broken the barrier of pernicious differentiation of the sexes and rent the bonds of fashion, and is daily impressing Spartan strength and grace, and more than Spartan intelligence on the mothers of coming generations. So weighed by its effect on body and mind, as well as on material progress, this device must be classed as one of the world’s great inventions.
Bicycles: Unlimited Opportunities
It is interesting to note above the claim that men and women are being less differentiated. People are becoming more intelligent; it’s a stimulant to the mind as well as a handy device of popular transportation.
One of Pope’s assistants was named Hiram Percy Maxim, and he also rhapsodized over the possibilities of bicycles, in exactly the same period. He wrote: “I saw transportation emerging from a crude stage in which mankind was limited to the railroad, or to the horse, or to shank’s mare…Look what an enormous improvement this is over the transportation that we’ve had until now.”
All the praises brings us to the significant fact that bicycles were the first devices with full interchangeability of parts that also enjoyed a popular vogue in the 1890s.
Common Questions about Albert Pope’s Invention of the Bicycle
Pope pioneered the idea of a stratified market. Rather than simply producing one kind of bicycle, he’d produce a very lavish one for the most wealthy customers, and then progressively more modest models.
The kind of thing we recognize as a bicycle, which in the early days was called a “safety bicycle”, was perfected in 1880s, and already by 1890 the design of bicycles in all the basic proportions looked very much the way a bicycle still does today. They were easy to ride, were relatively safe to ride, and much superior to their predecessors.
Pope was one of the founders of an organization called the League of American Wheelmen, a cyclists’ lobby group petitioning for improvement in the quality of American roads.
