Biped

“ Again, right rein and left spur, and the left diagonal biped returns to the ground as the other lifts. Once more comes the left rein and the right spur, the bipeds reverse, and we have four steps of the passage.
The essential means are, evidently, the attacks of the spurs. At the first touch, the horse is surprised. At the second, the surprise is increased. At the third, the animal becomes worried. At the fourth, he is very near to a revolt, because he does not understand what his rider asks. If now the rider continues the attacks, the horse will be driven into a complete revolt. ”

“ Art is consequently not an improvement on nature in the matter of walking. In walking, the centre of gravity is being constantly changed,—a circumstance due to the different attitudes assumed by the different portions of the trunk and limbs at different periods of time. All parts of the trunk and limbs of a biped, and the same may be said of a quadruped, move when a change of locality is effected. The trunk of the biped and quadruped when walking are therefore in a similar condition to that of the body of the fish when swimming. ”

“ This is what may be well called making more haste than good speed. None the less, though I am fully aware that the same frisking quadruped is a very improper subject of imitation, not only to an old biped but to an experienced M.P. of forty years' standing, yet I find myself in a state of mind exactly like that of the horse above mentioned, though it has not the same effects on my animal powers, and though, being on dry land and in a parlour, not a boat, I might frisk away if I chose with perfect impunity to myself and others. ”

“ In like manner the foot which is off the ground and swinging forward pendulum fashion in space, may be said to roll or rotate upon the trunk, the head of the femur forming the centre of a circle the radius of which is described by the advancing foot. A double rolling movement is thus established, the body rolling on the extremity the one instant, the extremity rolling on the trunk the next. During these movements the body rises and falls. The double rolling movement is necessary not only to the progression of bipeds, but also to that of quadrupeds. ”

“ Judging solely from this fact of its slow growth to maturity, we may take it that the lesser black-back lives long—that its natural term, as in some accipitrine species, probably exceeds a century. It is certainly the case that this gull is able, not only to keep itself alive, but to keep up its numbers, notwithstanding its large size and the dislike with which it is regarded on account of its predacious habits. The unfeathered biped is ever anxious to keep all the killing and plundering in his own hands. ”

“ As the body cannot advance without the extremities, so the extremities cannot advance without the body. The double rolling movement is necessary to continuity of motion. If there was only one movement there would be dead points or halts in walking and running, similar to what occur in leaping. The continuity of movement necessary to progression in some bipeds (man for instance) is further secured by a pendulum movement in the arms as well as in the legs, the right arm swinging before the body when the right leg swings behind it, and the converse. ”

“ The reason is that these have no power of locomotion, and the superior part is determined relatively to the nutriment, and their nutriment is from the earth. Quadrupeds, polypods, and footless animals again have their superior part corresponding to the intermediate, because they are not erect. Bipeds have theirs corresponding to the superior part of the universe because they are erect, and of bipeds, man par excellence; for man is the most natural of bipeds. ”

“ Countless sea-birds wheel with harsh, discordant cries around their weathered sides; where every available ledge and cranny of the rocks is peopled with a multitude of feathered bipeds, huddled together close as herrings in a barrel. ”

“ Although ten or twelve horses, gallantly taking it in their stride, have proved the jump to be an easy one, two or three of the foremost riders are seen to pull up, apparently afraid. In like manner, as horses and horsemen who had been riding boldly approach, it becomes evident to the meanest capacity, that the peg that holds in their steam is getting—sometimes in the biped, sometimes in the quadruped, and sometimes in both—looser and looser57 as they advance. ”

“ Notwithstanding this facility for water-power, we witnessed the stupendous folly of a small cotton-gin with eighteen saws in operation by the force of a treadmill, worked by the leg-power of men; and a screw was also seen at the same place worked by manual force of these bipeds.
In this apparatus there is a huge upright wheel of fifteen feet diameter, in which a man is constantly walking, and yet not advancing ”

“ The donkey-drivers would not submit to the indignity of being selected by the guide, but insisted on an appeal to ourselves, and the bipeds crowded round us screaming, jabbering, pushing, dragging the unfortunate quadrupeds by the bridle, vaunting the strength and speed of one—the saddle of another—all stunning and bewildering us with their noise ”

“ Birds may be characterized generally as feathered bipeds, whose mouth is modified into a longer or shorter beak incased in a horny sheath, sometimes serrated along the margin, but never presenting true teeth; whose fore-limbs assume the form of wings more or less developed, and having the hind-limbs supported on, at most, four toes, the innermost, however, in many birds being so imperfectly developed as not to reach the ground. ”

“ The male utters a low note resembling bip, bip, bipbip, bipbiperere, biperere, varied by a sound like the smacking of a tongue, produced by striking the mandibles smartly and in rapid succession; he then jumps upon a tussock of grass, swelling out his feathers, spreading his tail, drooping his wings in front of the female, and uttering a tremulous sbirr.... The males fight by slashing feebly with their wings, but the combat is not of long duration." As the characteristics of the great snipe become known, it will doubtless be recorded as occurring more frequently than it has been in the past. ”

“ Familiarity with the bicycle becomes a sort of second nature, and a velocipedean, after a fair amount of experience, finds himself almost as perfectly at home astride his two-wheeler, as he does on his feet.
When John Brent rode his horse across the plains in search of adventure, the era of the two-wheeled velocipede had not come upon us. We think the bicycle an animal, which will, in a great measure, supersede the horse. It does not cost as much; it will not eat, kick, bite, get sick, or die. ”

“ Look! If some one hasn’t been up here on a bicycle I miss my guess!”
“A bicycle!” exclaimed Bob. “Do you mean to say that the robbers rode a bicycle up here?”
“There are the marks of the rubber tires plain enough,” replied Jerry, pointing to them.
“That’s no bicycle track!” declared Ned.
“Why not?” the tall lad wanted to know.
“Or, if it is, the fellow rode on one wheel, or else is more expert than anyone I ever saw. See, there’s only one straight mark, and the best rider in the world turns his front wheel every now and then, making a separate track from the rear one. That’s no bicycle mark.” ”

“ In impelling a velocipede, the limbs are not constantly in motion; for on level ground, when the impetus is at the average rate, or when the machine is descending an incline, the feet may be removed from the pedals, and the legs be placed on the bar, fixed in front of the machine for that purpose. A slight impulsion to the vehicle from time to time suffices to keep up the speed. When a rider encounters a formidable hill, he can dismount and lead his bicycle by the hand. ”

“ Of the various kinds of velocipedes, four, three, two, and one wheeled, the bicycle seems to be considered the most artistic, is altogether the most in favor, and steadily maintains its ground against all rivals. Whether it will be the model velocipede of the future remains to be seen. The various experiments now being tried will, no doubt, eventually result in a nearly perfect machine, but it will require [Pg 18] a season’s experience fully to develop the ingenuity of our American artisans. ”

“ The horse instinctively reared itself up on its hind legs, receiving the deadly fangs full in the chest, then whirling round, fell—fell right on to the writhing monster. And the rider?
With rare readiness of nerve and judgment the latter had slid from the saddle at exactly the right fraction of a moment, and now stood contemplating a furious convulsive intermingling of kicking hoofs and heaving coils. One deft slash of the raw-hide whip was capable of cutting the head off the terrible reptile, if only he could get it in. ”

“ But with proper caution there is no danger either of falls or hurt in using the velocipede in the way we have advised. The pedal is constructed so that the foot of the rider can at once leave it; and should the machine incline to one side, it is only necessary to remove the foot from the same side, and place it on the ground. One must not let the handles go; they seem to restore and maintain the balance of the machine after the rider is off it. ”

“ When you are riding along level ground, and do not touch the "brake," the gear is at 80. Soon you come to a hill. Then by pulling the "brake" handle up half-way the gear of the wheel is changed from 80 to 60, and thus you can go up hill, slower, to be sure, but much easier. After reaching the top of the hill you pull this rod up close to the handle-bar of the wheel, and the gearing is thrown off entirely, so that the bicycle will coast down hill without turning the cranks. Of course the rider can keep his feet on the pedals all the time. ”

“ It is uncomfortable for the rider to go over roughnesses without springs, and a well-built machine is required to stand the jar of uneven roads.
It is no better policy to purchase a cheap velocipede, than a cheap ready-made shoe or other article of clothing.
It is a prevalent but erroneous idea, that the larger the bicycle, the greater the beauty and the greater the speed. A machine with a front wheel of a diameter of forty inches, is the largest that can possibly be rendered practicable. Thirty-eight inches is much better ”

“ He came up to a rider with lowered head and fierce snorts, as though intending to attack, but before the iron could be driven into his neck he gave a bound and fled, passing between the peons' outstretched capes. In his flight he ran against another picador, repeating the bound, the snort, and the flight. Then he ran against a third picador, who caught him fairly on the neck with his garrocha, increasing in this way both his fear and his velocity.
The audience had risen to their feet en masse gesticulating and shouting. A craven bull! What an abomination!... ”

“ If you put the bitting on very tight the first time, he cannot raise his head enough to loosen it, but will bear on it all the time, and paw, sweat, and throw himself. Many horses have been killed by falling backward with the bitting on; their heads being drawn up strike the ground with the whole weight of the body. Horses that have their heads drawn up tightly should not have the bitting on more than fifteen or twenty minutes at a time. ”

“ One was a weasel, the other a stoat, running along at a hedge-side before me. In both instances, just as the front wheel was touching the tail, the little flat-headed rascal swerved quickly aside and escaped.
Even some of the less common and less tame birds care as little for a man on a bicycle as they do for a cow. Not long ago a peewit trotted leisurely across the road not more than ten yards from my front wheel; and on the same day I came upon a green woodpecker enjoying a dust-bath in the public road. ”

“ Hence Van Bibber's crossness.
He waited as long as his dignity would allow, and then turned off into a by-lane end dropped on a bench and looked gloomily at the Lohengrin swans with the paddle-wheel attachment that circle around the lake. They struck him as the most idiotic inventions he had ever seen, and he pitied, with the pity of a man who contemplates crossing the ocean to be measured for his fall clothes, the people who could find delight in having some one paddle them around an artificial lake. ”

“ Why, for instance, should a man want to be alone with his sister on the top of a tower? At Milford his bicycle made, so to speak, an ass of itself. A finger-post suddenly jumped out at him, vainly indicating an abrupt turn to the right, and Mr. Hoopdriver would have slowed up and read the inscription, but no!—the bicycle would not let him. The road dropped a little into Milford, and the thing shied, put down its head and bolted, and Mr. Hoopdriver only thought of the brake when the fingerpost was passed. ”

“ It was the air-ship with the bicycle saddle. In it the 10-metre (33-foot) bamboo pole of my "No. 3" came nearer to being a real keel in that it no longer hung above my head, but, amplified by vertical and horizontal cross pieces and a system of tightly-stretched cords, sustained [134] within itself motor, propeller, and connecting machinery, petroleum reservoir, ballast, and navigator in a kind of spider web without a basket (see photograph, page 135) .
I was obliged to sit in the midst of the spider web below the balloon on the saddle of a bicycle frame which I had incorporated into it. ”