- - - - - - - - Select a Year or an Event - - - - - - - - Home The Wheel 19th Century Bicycle News 1869 - The Velocipede 1869 - Progress of the Velocipede 1869 - Improved Three-Wheeled Velocipede 1880 - Salem, Oregon Post Office 1881 - A Bicycle Era 1884 - Taming the Bicycle 1885 - Manitou Springs, Colorado 1887 - The Columbia Bicycle Calendar for 1887 1887 - Around the World on a Bicycle 1887 - Corvallis to the Sea 1890 1891 - Application of Rubber to Bicycle Wheels 1892 - The Lovell Diamond Safety Bicycle 1892 - . . . from New York to Chicago 1892 - A Bicycle Built For Two 1893 - Cycle-Infantry Drill Regulations 1893 - . . .Relations to the Physician 1893 - The Evolution of the Bicycle 1893 - Kyphosis Bicyclistarum 1893 - Aluminum for Bicycles 1893 - Bicycle Power-Plating Dynamo 1894 - Bicycle for the Park Police 1894 - Across Asia on a Bicycle: 1 1894 - Across Asia on a Bicycle: 2 1894 - Across Asia on a Bicycle: 3 1894 - Across Asia on a Bicycle: 4 1894 - The Search-Light Bicycle Lantern 1894 - Improved Pneumatic Saddle 1894 - An Improvement in Valves 1894 - The Reign of the Bicycle 1895 1895 - Bicycle Paths 1895 - T.R. & The Scorcher Squad 1895 - The Wheel Of To-Day 1895 - Woman And The Bicycle 1895 - A Doctor's View Of Bicycling 1895 - Bicycle Problems and Benefits 1895 - All Paris A-Wheel 1896 - Willson Park Bicycle Race Track 1896 - A Long Chase 1896 May 28, 1896 - Henry Ford's Bicycle Chain 1896 - The Rule of the Bicycle 1896 - The Bicycle Outlook 1896 - Bicycling for Women 1896 - American Bicycles in England June 14, 1897 - U.S. Army Bicycle Corps 1897 - Dangers and Benefits of the Bicycle 1898 - Over the Alps on a Bicycle 1899 - The Spanish-American War June 30, 1899 - Mile-A-Minute Murphy Aug. 10, 1899 - Salem, Oregon train station 1900 Dec. 17, 1903 - Wright Cycle Company 1905 1905 - In My Merry Oldsmobile 1908 - T.R. & the Siuslaw National Forest 1910 The Automobile Black Bicyclists 4th of July L.B.S. Nellie & Susan & Frances The Racers X-Bikes Links

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The Wheel   -   1880   -   1885   -   1890   -   1895   -   1896   -   1897   -   1899   -   1900   -   1905   -   1910

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Daisy Bell Words and music by Henry Dacre - 1892 There is a flower within my heart, Daisy, Daisy! Planted one day by a glancing dart, Planted by Daisy Bell! Whether she loves me or loves me not, Sometimes it's hard to tell; Yet I am longing to share the lot Of beautiful Daisy Bell! Chorus: Daisy Daisy, Give me your answer do! I'm half crazy, All for the love of you! It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage, But you'll look sweet on the seat Of a bicycle built for two ! We will go "tandem" as man and wife, Daisy, Daisy! Ped'ling away down the road of life, I and my Daisy Bell! When the road's dark we can despise P'liceman and lamps as well; There are bright lights in the dazzling eyes Of beautiful Daisy Bell! Chorus: I will stand by you in "wheel" or woe, Daisy, Daisy! You'll be the bell(e) which I'll ring, you know! Sweet little Daisy Bell! You'll take the lead in each trip we take, Then if I don't do well; I will permit you to use the brake, My beautiful Daisy Bell! Artist unknown. Ruby Lane November 12, 1899  An Austrian tourist mailed this early, lithographed postcard to a friend in Vienna, perhaps to remember the warmer days of summer. It is presently being auctioned online as an antique collectible by a Vienna physician. Ruby Lane is a San Francisco-based Internet antique auctioneer. Most tandem bicycles were built in-line for a captain (driver) and a stoker (passenger), but a few joined men's and women's models side-by-side. Others provided a drop frame up front to accomodate a lady's skirts, but the combination of a woman driver and a man in close proximity to her derriere proved socially and economically unacceptable. © Copyright 1995 The Edison Institute: Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village The 1896 Orient Bicycle Company Oriten decacycle is on display at the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village.		Photograph by Charles S. Lillybridge, Colorado Historical Society. Copyright © 1995-2001 Denver Public Library Turn-of-the-century riders crossing the South Platte River in Denver. Daisy Bell was the title of an enduring popular song that is better known from a line in the chorus . . . "A Bicycle Built For Two." Music historian David Ewen, writing in American Popular Songs, provides these notes: "When Dacre, an English popular composer, first came to the United States, he brought with him a bicycle, for which he was charged duty. His friend (the songwriter William Jerome) remarked lightly: 'It's lucky you didn't bring a bicycle built for two, otherwise you'd have to pay double duty.' Dacre was so taken with the phrase 'bicycle built for two' that he decide to use it in a song. That song, Daisy Bell, first became successful in a London music hall, in a performance by Kate Lawrence. Tony Pastor was the first one to sing it in the United States. Its success in America began when Jennie Lindsay brought down the house with it at the Atlantic Gardens on the Bowery early in 1892." Listen to Daisy Bell is online as a MIDI file. "Young Johnnie Steele has an Oldsmobile . . ." begins a song that many can hum today. Its refrain, "Come away with me Lucile . . ." was shocking for its inviting suggestiveness in 1905, and the song became a national hit for Morphy, who might have been the first one-name pop star in American music history. Gus Edwards composed the song and Vincent Bryan penned the immortal lyrics. It was published by M. Witmark & Sons on New York's Tin Pan Alley in 1905. Bicycles built for two, four and even ten riders were fabricated by the turn of the century. About this time, a five-rider Pacemaker weighing 130 pounds, featuring an 11-foot, 10-inch wheelbase and a 15-inch diameter drive sprocket appeared as a cycling novelty in Portland. The World's Largest Bike is a British tandem that seats as many as 23 riders and claimed the record in 1998. Tandems are still popular, especially in Oregon where an extensive network of urban bike paths, thousands of miles of back roads and active cycling clubs encourage their use with weekly rides and special charity events. Three Oregon companies build some of the newest tandem designs: BikeE Burley Design Cooperative Co-Motion Cycles Next: 1895 See 19th Century Bicycle News for a selected bibliography and historical resources online, or use the links to find other sites of interest. Copyright © 2001  Dennis Cowals All rights reserved.