The first bicycle had no pedals: Karl von Drais's dandy horse was pushed along with the rider's feet

historyWikipedia1817 · Mannheim, Germany

The first bicycle had no pedals: Karl von Drais's dandy horse was pushed along with the rider's feet

the gist

The dandy horse, also called the draisienne, was invented by the German Baron Karl von Drais and was the first human transport using two wheels in tandem. The rider sat on a wooden frame, pushed along with their feet, and steered the front wheel. Von Drais showed it in Mannheim in 1817 and in Paris in 1818. Pedals arrived in the early 1860s, when Pierre Michaux and Pierre Lallement added a crank drive to an enlarged front wheel. The chain drive later solved the awkward geometry of high-wheelers, producing the safety bicycle. Starley's 1885 Rover is usually called the first recognisably modern bicycle, and John Boyd Dunlop's practical pneumatic tyre of 1888 made rides comfortable.

how it works

A bicycle balances on two in-line wheels, and the rider stays upright by steering into falls. Pedals turn cranks that drive a chain to the rear wheel, so the rider's leg power turns into motion efficiently. Pneumatic tyres cushion bumps by trapping air, which lets wheels roll smoothly over rough ground.

so what

The bicycle is one of the most successful machines ever made. Its design made efficient human-powered transport available to ordinary people, and its boom in the 1890s pushed the grading of smooth roads, shaping the infrastructure that cars later used.

the bigger pattern

Bicycles helped drive road building: the grading of smooth roads in the late 19th century was stimulated by widespread advertising and use of bicycles and horse buggies. The bicycle's popularity pushed roads toward the paved networks that motor vehicles later needed.

fun fact

The Chinese Flying Pigeon is the most produced vehicle model of any kind, with numbers said to exceed 500 million.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗