Talk:Dandy horse

old talk
well mmm dandy horses. what can i say? well my bro is currently doing a project on em, so i tell u everything i know from other sites. its a bit confusing everything says something different. but anyway:

A bicycle is a two wheeled vehicle driven by the riders feet pushing on cranks or pedals. A common misconception is that the earliest form of bicycle was the dandy-horse, which was pushed along by the rider's feet. However, while both the dandy-horse and the later bicycle are both velocipedes, the dandy-horse is not propelled by cranks. The first bicycle was introduced to England from France in 1868, and comprised two solid wheels of equal size fitted to a frame, much like a modern bicycle in appearance, with a saddle fitted in the centre and propelled by cranks attached to the front wheel. This vehicle provided such a bumpy ride to the rider that it became popularly known as 'the bone-shaker'. Later came the Penny-Farthing with pedals fixed to the large front wheel which was made large to achieve high speeds. Later still came the safety bicycle with pedals driving the rear wheel by way of a chain, and the rider sitting upon a saddle set back from the front wheel so as to reduce the chances of falling forwards over the handlebars. In 1888 the two-person tandem bicycle was invented.

Velocipede was an early term for any kind of carriage driven by the feet, and the term encompassed bicycles and tricycles and the dandy-horse. The term velocipede was first used in France around the end of the 18th century.

Dandy Horse Around 1840 a man called Kirkpatrick MacMilllan, a blacksmith, arrived in Glasgow from Dumfriesshire by his "bicycle", also known as the Dandy Horse. This was the first modern bike we know..with pedals, so he could ride without putting his feet on the ground : a perfect invention as a personal, clean, selfpropelled means of transportation. As he arrived in town, after two days trip (the bike wheight was 57 lb), the crowd was very curious to see what was that "thing",and little a girl was lightly injured going on his path. The man was fined 5 shellings at Police Court for speeding (8 mph!), but when the magistrate saw him riding, he let him go free. His niece Mary Marchbank is known as the world's first lady cyclist. In the late 1850 newspaper were talking about Glasgow traffic :"Motorist are blamed for selfishly causing congestion and they in turn accuse Glasgow famous tramcars for the hold-ups". In a short time all trams were gone. The new Glasgow needed motorway,high rise flats and supermarkets. Everything went in deference to the motor car, and it's not the trams folk miss as what they symbolize: their lost community. R

History The bicycle took the world by storm when it was first developed in the 19th century. The idea for it came from a two-wheel hobby-horse, when Scotsman Kirkpatrick Macmillan applied the dandy-horse principle to a model with pedals. The first true bicycles, with cranks on the front wheels, went into production in Paris in 1865. They were called 'velocipedes' or 'boneshakers' (for obvious reasons), but their popularity grew. To make them more efficient, the front wheels were gradually made larger, resulting in the 20-year vogue of the ordinary (or pennyfarthing) bicycle. This was superseded by the safety bicycle, with a chain and sprocket drive similar to modern bikes; this went into production in 1885. Pneumatic rubber tires (1889) and variable gears (1899) were additional refinements.

The celerifere or velocifere was invented in France c 1790. Introduced to Britain, they became known as "hobby horses" or "dandy horses", the latter name referring to the fact that few people other than young dandies were willing to ride them (or could afford the high price of purchasing one!). The dandy horse consisted of two wheels and a seat, and the rider propelled it along the road with his legs while seated on the cross bar. Without suspension or pneumatic tyres, and on rough roads, it must have provided the rider with a bumpy and uncomfortable ride! -- 04:29, 16 May 2006‎ 203.129.141.196 

information
why doesnt any one ever write stuff here, surely some 1 in the world must b researching the dandy horse

Trivia
I added the part about the Dandy horse in a movie as "trivia", as I think it fits best there. ChristianH158 18:01, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

Name: Dandy Horse?
Could we have some references for the name 'Dandy Horse'? I've never encountered that terminology outside this article. I've heard 'hobby horse' a lot, and Running Machine (from the German), and Draisine (and varients). The wikimedia commons link doesn't work because that article was deleted for being improperly named.

In brief, cite or it isn't true! 86.164.69.239 (talk) 10:50, 6 June 2010 (UTC)

2022
The Britannica link does mention them being called dandy horses by caricaturists, wikimedia has several examples (https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Dandy_horses_in_art), so it was used and it wasn't complimentary. But I'm with you, why does this article use an obscure name, wouldn't it be better to name it running machine or hobby horse? .phoebewalsh (talk) 08:03, 30 October 2022 (UTC)

I support the above opinions about the name. I don't recall ever hearing of a dandy horse. The only citation is Britannica, which describes it as a derogatory name. I don't think I've heard the device called anything but a hobby horse. Humphrey Tribble (talk) 07:36, 4 March 2023 (UTC)


 * Maybe the article title was chosen because "hobby horse" has a distracting modern metaphorical meaning, while "dandy horse" doesn't. AnonMoos (talk) 17:06, 4 March 2023 (UTC)

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 * Archive page seems to me to be the result of a redirect & about something else entirely. Pinkbeast (talk) 00:03, 6 December 2016 (UTC)