Dear Mr. Mackenzie,
'Google' "Safety Bicycle" - and the first entry is the website of the
Bicycle Museum of America. This will show that in the USA in the `90s
Kipling would probably have bought a machine similar to today's 'ordinary'
bicycle - i.e., what I would categorise as a 'sit-up-and-beg' bicycle:
equal sized wheels, chain drive to the rear wheel by means of crank-operated
pedals, a sprung saddle, handlebars and brakes.
The old "high-wheeled bicycle" - the penny-farthing in British parlance -
was on its way out by 1892/3.
British and American developments of the bicycle were running pretty much
neck-and-neck - there would have been no need for RK to have imported a
bicycle from the UK - though he might, being a patriotic Brit., have done
so!
Also try Googling 'History of the Bicycle'
As regards your other points:
I guess the reactions of the folk in Southern Vermont would have been pretty
much the same as in the countryside of England at the time: the bicycle was
weel known, but was still a toy for the middle classes - it was relatively
expensive - but I daresay that the Brattleborough blacksmith would have
added a line to the bottom of the sign outside his forge saying "All makes
of cycles repaired" - and if he was very progressive "Agent for so-and-so's
tyres" (Maybe Mr. Goodyear's - I'm pretty sure he was around then). So the
reaction would have been "There goes that dang-fool Britisher Kipling with
his new bicycle - what folks want with one of them sure beats me."
While as for the bicycle as a substitute for an automobile - no. The
automobile was still not a practical proposition in 1892-96: yes, they
existed, but were really still no more than an engineer's plaything. But
the rapidity with which they came to be practical machines was remarkable,
and had RK stayed longer in Vermont, it's quite possible that he would have
acquired an automobile earlier than he did.
Hope this is of some help
Yours ever,
Alastair Wilson
----- Original Message -----
From: "john mackenzie" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Alastair Wilson" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2005 10:23 PM
Subject: kipling's bicycle
> Dear subscribers,
> I am a Briton who is resident in Vermont, and am trying to research
> Rudyard Kipling's Brattlboro period. I am looking for any information
> about his bicycle in particular. Not knowing all that much about the
> evolution of the bicycle, I am also after a simple history. I am trying
> to answer questions such as what kind of bicycle did RK ride? Who gave it
> to him? What would it have looked like/been made of? How would the
> locals have taken to seeing the Englishman pedalling around the steep
> lanes of southern Vermont? Also, peripherally, it has recently been told
> to me that RK had a passion for motorcars, although was himself unable to
> drive. Did this fact make the bicycle the closest thing he could find to
> driving an automobile?
> I would be grateful for any leads in relation to any of the above! I live
> in Peacham, Vermont, and am residing in Vershire in the Upper Valley for
> the duration of the summer as a break from my year-round job of teaching
> English to high-schoolers. So, if anyone knows of a good bicycle rental
> company in the Dummerston/Brattleboro area, I might just head down there
> one evening to take myself out along RK's fateful route along Pine Tree
> Hill..!
> Many thanks in advance.
> Sincerely,
> John Mackenzie
>
>
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