I think it is normal for the greatest innovations in regard to any product to be made soon after the product is first introduced or perhaps soon after it begins mass production. This has been the case with bicycles, automobiles, aircraft and computers, among others.
A newly available product, I think, is perceived as "modern" "progressive" and "technological", all terms which, at least in Western society, are seen as positive, get people excited about the product, and motivate them to spend time and energy improving it.
We sometimes forget that bicycles were "cutting edge" in 1880 and therefore attracted some of the best technical minds of the day, as well as entrrpreneurs and athletes.
I think perhaps the shifting of the then-famous bicycle racer Barney Oldfield over to automobile racing, for which he is today better known, early in the 20th century signals the displacement of the bicycle by the automobile as the "modern" technology which ambitious men like Oldfield wanted to be associated with.
After a time, a product and its assocaited technology become "mature" and the pace of innovation slows, becoming more and more a matter of small refinements rather than great technical breakthroughs. That's why many automotive engineers today seem to spend their time designing cupholders.
For a mature product, great innovation often involves revisiting past designs which for some reason fell into disuse, like renewed interest in electic cars, which were marketed by Detroit Electic and others at the beginning of the 20th century. This occured with the rediscovery of aluminum bike frames in the 70's and 80's and with sprung frames and forks on MTB's which were in no way a new concept for bicycles. Other than the use of carbon fibre and titanium "just because we can", I expect the next large innovation in bicycles will probably be a rediscovery and refinement of something first tried in the 1880's or 1890's.
Regards,
Jerry Moos Big Spring, Tx
"Mazzeo, Daniel" <Daniel.Mazzeo@usap.gov> wrote: Group - hopefully this is related and perhaps of use to someone. In my senior year at college, 1974, I wrote a paper for an air pollution control course on the bicycle. I was so into the subject that it damn near turned into a book. Amazingly the professor commuted to class on a bicycle, as did I, and he was very supportive of the project. I used the school library stacks to research bike inventions from about 1880 to 1900 and found incredible stuff in early "Scientific American" magazines kept on 'fiche in the library. Virtually every invention of the time related to bicycles was catalogued as a patent request or other, plus the advertisements of bikes for sale were beautiful hand done lithographs etc. Colonel Pope's factory was illustrated in one issue and I used the pictures as illustrations in my paper. I did get the highest grade in the class for it. Still have a copy of it on the shelves too. Thanks Dan Mazzeo Morrison, CO
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of David Toppin Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 7:32 AM To: martin@team-ware.de Cc: 'Classic Rendevous' Subject: RE: AW: [CR]Why is there no German threading?
The Germans weren't really there at the beginning (1880's) of the era, Pope, Overman, Spalding, Gormully & Jeffrey . Of course Baron von Drais is credited with the invention of the hobby horse, and he was German. Some believe there were others before him because his machine seems to be too refined to be the first...
Schwinn wasn't around until 1895 when the bicycle industry was in full swing. That was the heyday.
David Toppin dave@pelletizer.com http://www.pelletizer.com <------ see our complete, searchable inventory.
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-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of Martin Appel Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 9:07 AM To: Sheldon Brown Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org; marcus.e.helman@gm.com Subject: Re: AW: [CR]Why is there no German threading?
Sheldon Brown schrieb:
> Michael Schmid schreib:
>
>> My two cents here:
>> I think the german bicycle industry was at least as big as the
>> english
>
> Not so sure about that, because the English bicycle industry had a
> very large export market, while the German industry was mainly geared
> to the domestic market.
>
>> and probably bigger than the american inudstry
>
> Quite possibly. It's interesting to note that the early U.S. industry
> was VERY heavily influenced by German immigrants. I'll just mention
> the names "Schwinn" and "Wald" but there are others that I can't
> recall from the early part of the 20th century.
A maybe interesting sidenote; i own a book written by young german Heinrich Horstmann who rode around the world on a bicycle in 1895. When he returned from that juorney he started importing US made "Crescent" bicycles to germany...
Martin Appel Munich, Germany
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