| 1869 -1922 | 1922 -1929 | 1930 - 1944 |
| 1946 -1958 | 1960 -1969 | 1969 -1979 |
 
 
 

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