Today marks World Bicycle Day and various cities have organized rides and various activities to encourage the use of this vehicle, emphasizing the benefits it has both for health as well as for the protection of the environment. As an exercise and as an anti-pollution, the bicycle has stood the test of time and instead of disappearing, it has strengthened its presence in our societies as a symbol of a healthier lifestyle that respects nature. The story goes that this celebration was established for every April 19 in 1943, three days after the Swiss scientist Albert Hoffman was transferred, safe and sound, to his home on a bicycle driven by one of his assistants, after he was left semi -unconscious after experimenting with LSD. But who invented the bicycle? Magisterial Spill tells you about it in this note:
Although the oldest evidence of a human-powered vehicle dates back to the civilizations of Egypt, China and India, the first concrete reference to the history of the bicycle appeared in approximately 1490 , in one of the codex or codices of the Italian genius Leonardo da Vinci, called Codex Atlanticus. In this work, a drawing was found of something similar to the bicycle, as we know it today, including the pedal transmission. However, time caused these drawings to be lost in the dark and they were discovered many years after the invention was formally patented.
At the end of the 17th century, the French Count Mede de Sivrac invented the “celerifer”, a two-wheeled toy that could only move in a straight line. Almost two centuries later, in 1817, another European inventor, the German nobleman Karl Christian Ludwig Drais von Sauerbronn, created the first two-wheeled vehicle with a device for changing direction, but without pedals. Known as the Draisian bicycle (in honor of its creator), it served as the basis for various improvements applied over the years until the Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick Macmillan revolutionized the invention, adding pedals that allowed the driver to propel the bicycle without touching the ground with the feet. To this day, a copy of this bicycle is on display at the Science Museum in London, England.
In the last decade of the 19th century, the figure of the English industrialist John Boyd Dunlop emerged, who replaced the hard pieces of solid rubber that were used as wheels with the first inflatable tires, which they made the transfer by bicycle more fluid and comfortable. From then on, and with the industrial revolution in tow, the use and applications for bicycles began to increase, until they became a complete universe that includes use protocols, classes and qualities, competitions and all kinds of variations in the world. of bicycles.
The most popular, without a doubt, is the bicycle for urban use, which in our days has revived its rise as the main transport vehicle in countries such as Switzerland, Germany, Holland ( Europe) or Japan, China and India (Asia), in which its use even exceeds that of motorized vehicles. This is due, among other things, to the fact that it is a more economical and practical means of transport, it helps to avoid traffic jams due to its size and, as it does not require fuel, it protects the environment. The main roads of these cities have adequate infrastructure to promote the safe passage of cyclists, a model that, timidly, is replicated in our country in some large avenues such as Salaverry or Arequipa, which have so-called "cycle paths".
Cyclists also have an advantage over non-cyclists and it is related to the health benefits that practicing this activity offers. In the physical aspect, riding a bicycle helps to keep fit both muscularly and cardiovascularly. And for stressed people, riding a bicycle outdoors can be an excellent relaxation therapy, as long as the relevant safety measures are followed.
Some curiosities of the bicycle world include unicycles, widely used by jugglers and circus acts, tandem or double bicycles and racing bicycles for closed circuits, with aerodynamic designs, wheels made of special materials and striking colors. Some competitive cyclists have become among the best-known athletes in the world, such as the American Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France, the world's most important cycling competition, seven consecutive years (from 1999 to 2005). In 2012, the US Anti-Doping Agency withdrew those awards for doping and also suspended him for life in a scandal that went around the world. But that's another story...