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| the Ottawa Journal, April 1898 |
The first bicycle (
sensu lato) dates back to the early 19th century (the wooden "Draisienne", see below*), but it was the introduction of the Dunlop pneumatic tire in 1888, and the development of the freewheel/coaster-brake in the 1890s that fomented a true
fin-de-siècle cycling craze. Given the Ottawa's road conditions at the time (mud, cobbles, streetcar rails), one wonders exactly how much fun bike-riding would have been. Of course, we had little to compare any of that to.
At first, opening a store that only sold bicycles must have seemed a bold move — safer to carry them seasonally, alongside agricultural equipment as in the above case.
So many old newspaper ads fail to give full and proper street addresses. In the present case, "Cor. Sparks & Kent Sts." is almost generous. My research indicates (Goad 1888) that Massey-Harris sat on the southwest "Cor." of Sparks and Kent. In time they were replaced by the Esdale Press bookbinders, as the selling of farming tools in the heart of a business district became ever less appropriate. The location is now a Starbucks in the Marriott Hotel at 100 Kent Street.
*Developed 200 years ago by the Baron Karl von Drais (1785-1851, Karlsruhe Germany), the Laufmaschine ("running machine"), Draisienne, or "dandy-horse" featured what we would now call "Fred Flintstone drive". Drais anticipated key features of modern bike design, including front-wheel steering — still, riding one would have been strenuous (if not outright murder on the crotch). Drais' October 1817 brochure for the Laufmaschine took pains to stress the graceful integration of rider and machine (image of a military courier above) — note his depiction of optimized posture, stride and the toe-strike/push-off positions of the feet. Cue Kraftwerk.
