1868 -1922
Inventing the motorcycle
The 19th century spans an impressive period of invention,
one notable for its preoccupation with time, space, and speed.
The first railroad locomotive, the use of electric light,
the creation of cinema: the influence of these technological
advancements was profound, responsible for fundamental alterations
in the manner in which we perceive our environment, even live
our lives, today. The railroad isolated us further from a
spatial relationship to the landscape; electricity released
us from the quotidian routines dictated by natural light;
cinema, with its illusion of occurring in "real"
time, changed traditional notions of temporality and mortality.
These particular inventions share more than a continuing
resonance. They also demonstrate the restlessness of human
nature since the industrial age-the desire for more speed,
more time to work, more entertainment, the demand for "different
and better" as quickly as possible. It is this love affair
with dynamism that inspired the invention of the motorcycle.
Certain early experimental motorcycles are fascinating in
terms of the transparency of their inventors' intentions:
namely, how can we move faster? The Michaux-Perreaux, created
in France in 1868, took a small commercial steam engine and
attached it to the bicycle, which had existed since 1840.
Use of steam-powered two-wheelers continued until late in
the century, as evidenced by the Geneva. In other early motorcycles,
like the De Dion-Bouton, the Orient, and the Thomas, the designers
began experimenting with petrol power while maintaining basic
bicycle design. Gottlieb Daimler, the German engineer who
earned the nickname "Father of the Motorcycle, "
was actually using his 1885 wooden "boneshaker"
(a term often used to describe early cycles, with their wooden
frames and wheels) to test a gasoline engine intended for
a four-wheeled carriage. Felix Millet's unusual "motocyclette,"
built in 1893, featured a radial five-cylinder engine inspired
by aeronautical design that reappears later in the striking
1922 Megola.
Fuente: Museo Guggenheim
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