1866 Bone Shaker Bicycle
edited by David Barth, 6 June 2011.
Courtesy The Forney Museum of Transportation at 4303 Brighton Blvd., Denver,
Colorado 80216. Photos were taken in June 2011.
This very rare "bone shaker" bicycle was built by Wood Brothers, New York, in 1866. The serial number of this bicycle is 139. Bone shakers were in vogue from around
1860 to 1869. They predated the high-wheelers that were popular in the late 1870's and early 1880's. The bone shaker was driven by adjustable pedals on the front
wheel, making it go faster than its predecessor, the Draisienne. It was called a "bone shaker" because it had wooden wheels with an iron band for tires,
resulting in a rough ride on the unimproved road surfaces of that time.
To help provide a better ride, a flat, iron spring was used as a frame member where the seat was attached. The seat was adjustable along the spring. This example
has a rear wheel brake, a metal seat, wooden grips, and adjustable, metal pedals with counter weights to keep the foot surface upright. The front wheel of the
bone shaker was made larger to provide more speed for each rotation of the pedals. Very few bone shakers survive because during World War I, 1914 to 1918,
nearly all bone shakers were melted down for iron needed to make war material.
Due to the size of the wheel which had pedals directly connected to it, the bone shaker was not a particularly fast bicycle. The interest in speed led to the
subsequent development of bicycles that had a large front wheel. They were called "ordinary," "High Wheelers," "penny farthings," and "standard"
bicycles.
However, ordinary bicycles were dangerous because it was easy for the rider to hit a bump and go over the handle bars. The next evolutionary step was to return
to the configuration of the bone shaker and today's bicycles, but with pedals driving the rear wheel through gears connected by a chain to provide higher
speeds.
The exhibit number is 133.
