A NEW MEANS OF LOCOMOTION.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 549, 30 June 1879, Page 3

A NEW MEANS OF LOCOMOTION.

A cheap substitute for tho bicycle is comine into use in the United States. The "pedometer," as it is called, is a modification of the parlour skate, with its frame fitted and strapped to the shoe , and four small rubber- tired wooden wheels coming up on either side instead of beiog kept under the *h e, as in tha skate Tho two forward wheels being half-an-inch smaller in diamoter than the three-inch rear ones, give a slight pitch, which aids the forward impulse, and a metallic wheel at the heel helps the walker to guide and stop himself The gaiu in (.peed is obtained by the forward motion still continuing while the ieet are alternately raised, and it is likewise stated that the walker can cover at least double the distance of ordinary stridiog without any appreciably great effort. Personal rapid transit, or "every man his own motor," is one of the great requirements of tbe present day, when life is almost foo short, lengthened though it has b?en by sa ikary science, to enable human beings to get t hrough all that they have to do la the way oi business and society with comfort and satisfaction to themselves and each other. If tho '' pedomotor" really, as is alleged, meets the necessities for snifter transfer between homes and places of business, it may prove a convenience ; but if, in addition to bicycles on the carriage-roads, we are to have "pedomotors" on the /ootwa\s, life will become impossible and unendurable to quiet ceJestrians who bave no desire to be constantly rushing about, and whoso constitutions will not bear he shock of frequent collisions.