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| Gottllieb Daimler's 1885 Motorcycle. . |
The Motorcycle
A Brief History of the
Motorcycle
The First Motorcycle Was Powered by Coal
Like many inventions, the
motorcycle evolved in gradual stages, without a single inventor who can
lay sole claim to being the inventor.
Early versions of the
motorcycle were introduced by numerous inventors, mostly in Europe, in the
19th century.
Steam-Powered Bicycles
American Sylvester Howard
Roper (1823-1896) invented a two-cylinder, steam-powered velocipede in 1867. (A
velocipede is an early form of bicycle in which the pedals are attached to the
front wheel).
Roper's invention can be
considered the first motorcycle if you allow your definition of a motorcycle to
include a coal-fired steam engine.
Roper, who also invented the
steam-engine car, was killed in 1896 while riding his steam velocipede.
Around the same time that
Roper introduced his steam-powered velocipede, Frenchman Ernest Michaux
attached a steam engine to a velocipede invented by his father, blacksmith
Pierre Michaux. His version was fired by alcohol and twin belt drives that
powered the front wheel.
A few years later, in 1881,
an inventor named Lucius Copeland of Phoenix, Arizona developed a smaller steam
boiler that could drive the rear wheel of a bicycle at the amazing speed of 12
mph.
In 1887, Copeland formed a
manufacturing company to produce the first so-called
"Moto-Cycle," though it was actually a three-wheeled
contraption.
The First Gas-Engined Motorcycle
Over
the next 10 years, dozens of different designs for self-propelled bicycles
appeared, but it's widely acknowledged that the first to use a gasoline-powered
internal combustion engine was the creation of German Gottlieb Daimler and
his partner Wilhelm Maybach, who developed the Petroleum Reitwagon in 1885.
This marked the moment
in history when the dual development of a viable gas-powered engine and the
modern bicycle collided.
Gottlieb Daimler used a new
engine invented by engineer Nicolaus Otto.
Otto had invented the first
"Four-Stroke Internal-Combustion Engine" in 1876, dubbing it the
"Otto Cycle Engine."
As soon as he completed his
engine, Daimler (a former Otto employee) built it into a motorcycle.
Oddly, Daimler's Reitwagon did
not have a maneuverable front wheel, but instead relied on a pair of outrigger
wheels, similar to training wheels, to keep the bike upright during
turns.
Daimler was a prodigious
innovator and went on to experiment with gasoline motors for boats, and he also
became a pioneer in the commercial car manufacturing arena.
The company bearing his name
eventually became Daimler Benz—the company that evolved in the corporation
we now know as Mercedes-Benz.
Continued Development
From
the late 1880s onward, dozens of additional companies sprang up to produce
self-propelled "bicycles," first in Germany and Britain but quickly
spreading to the U.S.
In 1894, the German company, Hildebrand
& Wolfmüller, became the first to establish a production line factory to
manufacture the vehicles, which now for the first time were called
"motor-cycles."
In the U.S., the first
production motorcycle was built by the factory of Charles Metz, in Waltham,
Massachusetts.
The Harley Davidson Motorcycle
No
discussion of the history of motorcycles can end without some mention of the
most famous U.S. manufacturer, Harley Davidson.
Many of the 19th-century
inventors who worked on early motorcycles often moved on to other inventions.
Daimler and Roper, for
example, both went on to develop automobiles and other vehicles.
However,
some inventors, including William Harley and the Davidsons brothers,
continued to exclusively develop motorcycles.
Among their business
competitors were other new start-up companies, such as Excelsior, Indian, Pierce,
Merkel, Schickel, and Thor.
In 1903, William Harley and
his friends Arthur and Walter Davidson launched the Harley-Davidson Motor
Company.
The bike had a quality
engine, so it could prove itself in races, even though the company initially
planned to manufacture and market it as a transport vehicle.
Merchant C. H.
Lange sold the first officially distributed Harley-Davidson in Chicago.
Mary Bellis has
been writing about inventors since 1997. She also loves to tinker (invent) and
spends too much time in her workshop developing her ideas.
Experience
Forbes Best
of the Web credits Mary for creating the number one online destination for
information about inventors and inventions. Her writing has been reprinted and
referenced to in numerous educational books and articles. Her opinion and
advice is requested by media outlets on a constant basis. In addition, she has
produced and directed a number of films, including a documentary on Alexander
Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, and has worked as a curator
specializing in computer generated art.
Education
Mary has two degrees in film and animation from the San Francisco
Art Institute. She is a big fan of both history and technology and an avid
reader of books and periodicals on those topics.
Mary Bellis
I have a passion for inventing and a deep respect for all
inventors. I know firsthand the difficulties that inventors face and I want to
help by making the path from idea to marketplace a clearer process.
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