Mr. Dudley H. Pope on a typewriter-cycle, featuring a Remington on the handlebars.
An avid cyclist, I find this typewriter-cycle impossibly top heavy, but Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict thought it an idea worth exploring.
Describing the initiative in 1894, the Illustrated Phonographic World wrote: “The inventor of the typewriter-cycle is Mr. Dudley H. Pope… Mr. Pope rode this cycle throughout the 28 mimic battles, without a single hitch occurring, and at the direction of the commanding officer, from time to time, threaded his way at full speed in and out the various lines of gun-carriages, wagons, etc.”
“The typewriter is instantly detachable,” the World continued, “rendering the cycle available for the speedy transmission of any message or order. The practical utility of the typewriter-cycle was fully evidenced, messages being signaled from balloons and instantly typewritten, and then conveyed to the rear by a trained war dog.”
The utility of portable typewriters, notably the Corona 3, would eventually obviate the need for such contrivances.
From The Illustrated Phonographic World (New York), November 1894 —
Robert Messenger writes about other bicycle/typewriters here.
© 2019, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.
Now that is real bicycle typing at its finest.
I love to bike and type. I often take a Skyriter in one of the panniers, but I doubt I’d ever even attempt a full size cast iron frame anything any place on the bike.