Originally Posted by
bulgie
I don't know if it's the first mention in print, but Archibald Sharp devotes several paragraphs (and a drawing) to the oval chainring in his 1896 opus "Bicycles and Tricycles". He just says it "has been used", didn't say by whom, but it wasn't his invention.
"B&T" also shows a drawing of a bike with aero disk wheels, the front being a 4-spoke to reduce the effect on steering from side winds. Almost 130 years ago.
okay, you made me find the old pdf version of B&T that I downloaded from Google books a long time ago.
Leafing through it, I'm amazed to find that Mr. Sharp references a handful of bike books that were helpful when writing his book that was published in 1896! From my perspective, he was around for the birth of the bike, but he was still decades after all of the initial flurry of trying out crazy new ideas!
I also see that I only downloaded Chapters 22 and below. It appears to go up to Chapter 30 or more. Amazon appears to have print versions for sale. Archive.org appears to have a copy available for use, and I might try browsing through that a bit.
It's always fascinating to see where our favorites things came from and what the evolutionary path was. I should find time to read The Dancing Chain again too.
Steve in Peoria