Figure 1.-- This American boy looks to be about 10-years old. Notice the boy's peaked cap. Thst seems a popular style for biking. We doubt if he woud jve worn that flopy bow when actually biking. Also notice the low-cut shoe. High-top shoes were more common. In pencil on back says made July 20, 1895 also says something else I cannot make out. Given the diameter of the tire, we suspect tht this is a pneumatic tire. And a Brutish reader points out, "The tyres on the bike are most likely pneumatic one. The valve for pumping air into it can clearly be seen. Makes for a smoother ride." Notice that there are no fenders. The studio was Saylors's New York Gallery, Reading, Pennsylvania.

Bicycles had become an important industry in the 1890s and rubber played an important role on it success. . There were 126 factories in the country producing 500,000 bikes (1895), ahuge increased in only 10 years. And shops opened all over the country to maintain the bikes. Americans in the many bike shops that appeared began tinkering with building better bikes. Bike shops began to appear across the country. (One of these shops, the Wright brothers shop, interestingly would lead to the first true airplane.) The rapidly developing bicycle industry was the first major masrket. We are not sure just how rapidly these tires replaced metal tires. We see metal tires being used in the late 1890s. An example here is American boy Joseph C. Ritter in 1897. It is a little difficult to tell if the rubber tires on bikes are solid are pneumatic. Perhaps readers will know how to tell. If the image is clear enough, we may be able to spot the air valve on pneumatic tires. They are very ovious on the bike here (figure 1). We suspect that the diamter of the tire is the major way of telling. It was the development of the automobile industry beginning at the turn-of-the- 20th century that created vastly increased demand for rubber needed for pneumatic tires. Thus in the 20th centyry rubber became a critical natural resource. Safety bikes appeared in the 1890s which opened the way for children's bikes. They were not, however, primarily for children. Middle class men used them for sport. Working-class men if they could afford them, used them to get to work. At first it was mostly wealthy children that had them. By the end of the century we see boys riding bikes in their ordinary clothes rather than bicycle club uniforms. Almost always this was knee pants which by the time not only avoided the problems of long pants geting entagled in the mechaims, but had become the standard type of trousers worn by boys.

Sources

Jackson, Joe. The Thief at the End of the World: Rubber, Power, and the Seeds of Empire (Penguin: 2008).

Created: 7:58 AM 4/26/2014
Last updated: 10:19 PM 4/26/2014