Pierre Lallement is considered by some to be the inventor of the bicycle

History of the bicycle

Vehicles for human transport that have two wheels and require balancing by the rider date back to the early 19th century. The first means of transport making use of two wheels, and thus the archetype of the bicycle, was the German draisine dating back to 1817...

.

Early years

Lallement was born on October 25, 1843 in Pont-à-Mousson

Pont-à-Mousson

Pont-à-Mousson is a commune in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department in north-eastern France.Population : 14,592 . It is an industrial town , situated on the Moselle River...

 near Nancy, France.

In 1862, while Lallement was employed building baby carriages in Nancy, he saw someone riding a dandy horse

Dandy horse

The dandy-horse, also known as hobby-horse, is a human-powered vehicle that, being the first means of transport to make use of the two-wheeler principle, is regarded as the forerunner of the bicycle. The dandy horse was invented by Baron Karl Drais in Mannheim, Germany, and patented in January 1818...

, a forerunner of the bicycle that required the rider to propel the vehicle by walking. Lallement modified what he had seen by adding a transmission

Transmission (mechanics)

A machine consists of a power source and a power transmission system, which provides controlled application of the power. Merriam-Webster defines transmission as: an assembly of parts including the speed-changing gears and the propeller shaft by which the power is transmitted from an engine to a...

 comprising a rotary crank mechanism

Crank (mechanism)

A crank is an arm attached at right angles to a rotating shaft by which reciprocating motion is imparted to or received from the shaft. It is used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. The arm may be a bent portion of the shaft, or a separate arm...

 and pedals

Bicycle pedal

A bicycle pedal is the part of a bicycle that the rider pushes with their foot to propel the bicycle. It provides the connection between the cyclist's foot or shoe and the crank allowing the leg to turn the bottom bracket spindle and propel the bicycle's wheels...

 attached to the front-wheel hub

Bicycle wheel

A bicycle wheel is a wheel, most commonly a wire wheel, designed for bicycle. A pair is often called a wheelset, especially in the context of ready built "off the shelf" performance-oriented wheels....

, thus creating the first true bicycle

Bicycle

A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

.
He moved to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 1863, apparently interacted with the Olivier brothers

Olivier brothers

The Olivier brothers, Aimé, René, and Marius, were the first people responsible for recognizing the commercial potential of a new invention : the bicycle....

, who saw great commercial potential in his invention. The Oliviers formed a partnership with Pierre Michaux

Michaux

Michaux may refer to:* André Michaux , French botanist and explorer* Michaux State Forest, a Pennsylvania State Forest, named for André Michaux.* François André Michaux , French botanist, son of André Michaux...

 to mass-produce a 2-wheeled velocipede

Velocipede

Velocipede is an umbrella term for any human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle....

. Whether these bicycles used Lallement's design of 1864 or another by Ernest Michaux is a matter of dispute. Lallement himself apparently become an employee of Michaux for a short time.

American career

Lallement left France in July 1865 for the United States, settling in Ansonia, Connecticut

Ansonia, Connecticut

Ansonia is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, on the Naugatuck River, immediately north of Derby and about northwest of New Haven. The population was 19,249 at the 2010 census. The ZIP code for Ansonia is 06401. The city is serviced by the Metro North railroad...

, where he built and demonstrated an improved version of his bicycle. With James Carroll of New Haven as his financer, he filed the earliest and only American patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 application for the pedal-bicycle in April 1866, and the patent was awarded on November 20, 1866. His patent drawing

Patent drawing

A patent application or patent may contain drawings, also called patent drawings, illustrating the invention, some of its embodiments , or the prior art...

 shows a machine bearing a great resemblance to the style of dandy-horse built by Denis Johnson of London, with its serpentine

Serpentine shape

Serpentine refers to the curved shape of an object or design which resembles the letter s, a sine wave or a snake; the latter is the derivation of the term.- Examples :* The Serpentine River...

 frame

Bicycle frame

A bicycle frame is the main component of a bicycle, on to which wheels and other components are fitted. The modern and most common frame design for an upright bicycle is based on the safety bicycle, and consists of two triangles, a main triangle and a paired rear triangle...

, the only differences being, first, the addition of the pedals and cranks, and, second, a thin strip of iron above the frame acting as a spring upon which he mounted the saddle

Saddle

A saddle is a supportive structure for a rider or other load, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is the equestrian saddle designed for a horse, but specialized saddles have been created for camels and other creatures...

 to provide a more comfortable ride.

Failing to interest an American manufacturer in producing his machine, Lallement returned to Paris in 1868, just as the Michaux bicycles were creating the first bicycle craze in France, an enthusiasm which spread to the rest of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 and to America. Lallement returned to America again sometime before 1880, when he testified in a patent infringement suit on behalf of plaintiff Albert Pope, to whom he had sold the rights in his patent. At the time Lallement was living in Brooklyn

Brooklyn

Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 and working for the Pope Manufacturing Company

Pope Manufacturing Company

Pope Manufacturing Company was founded by Albert Augustus Pope in Hartford, Connecticut. The company began with the introduction of the "Columbia High Wheeler" bicycle in 1878.-History:...

. He died in obscurity in 1891 in Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

 at the age of 47.

Later recognition

A three-and-a-half-mile section of Boston's bike network that snakes through Southwest Corridor Park

Southwest Corridor Park

Southwest Corridor Park is a linear urban park in Boston, Massachusetts, part of the Metropolitan Park System of Greater Boston and managed by the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation...

 from Forest Hills

Forest Hills, Boston

Forest Hills is a part of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.-Overview:As the name indicates, Forest Hills is characterized by hilly terrain and wooded areas within and adjacent to its borders...

 to Back Bay is named the Pierre Lallement Bike Path. It passes not far from the house where Lallement died in 1891.

In 1998, a monument to Lallement was unveiled in New Haven as part of the city's International Festival of Arts & Ideas on New Haven Green

New Haven Green

The New Haven Green is a privately owned park and recreation area located in the downtown district of the city of New Haven, Connecticut. It comprises the central square of the nine-square settlement plan of the original Puritan colonists in New Haven, and was designed and surveyed by colonist...

 at 990 Chapel Street.

Lallement was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame

United States Bicycling Hall of Fame

The United States Bicycling Hall of Fame, located in Davis, California, is a private organization formed to preserve and promote the sport of cycling.-Location:...

 in 2005.

Sources

• Charles E. Pratt, "Pierre Lallement and his Bicycle," in Outing and the Wheelman
  Outing (magazine)
  Outing was a late-nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American magazine covering a variety of sporting activities. It began publication in 1882 as the Wheelman and had four title changes before ceasing publication in 1923....
  
  : An Illustrated Monthly Magazine of Recreation, vol. 3, October 1883 - March 1884 (Boston: The Wheelman Company, 1884), 4-13. Google Books: available online, accessed July 18, 2010
• Frederic D. Schwarz, "Behind the Wheels", in Invention and Technology Magazine (Winter 1994)