00:00Did you know the bicycle began with a machine that had no pedals?
00:04In 1817, German inventor Baron Karl von Drace created a strange two-wheeled vehicle called the Lauf machine, meaning running
00:14machine.
00:14Why did he build it?
00:16Just two years earlier, Mount Tambora had erupted in Indonesia, helping trigger the disastrous Year Without a Summer in 1816.
00:26Crops failed, food became scarce, oats became expensive, and horses became harder to keep.
00:32Some historians believe these conditions may have helped inspire Drace to find an alternative way to travel.
00:38His machine was mostly made of wood, with two wheels, a steerable front wheel, and a seat.
00:44But there were no pedals or chain.
00:47Instead, you sat down and pushed yourself forward with your feet.
00:50On June 12, 1817, Drace demonstrated it by riding from Monheim toward Schwetzingen and back.
00:58Over the next decades, inventors added pedals, improved wheels, chain drives, and better designs.
01:05By the 1880s, the safety bicycle looked much closer to what we recognize today.
01:10So the modern bicycle didn't appear overnight.
01:14It started with a wooden machine you literally had to run to ride.
