Retrospective.

Progress, Volume VII, Issue 2, 1 December 1911, Page 900

Retrospective.

How few motorcyclists ever give a thought to the count-

less inventions of which their machines represents a “tabloid” expression. There is hardly one amongst us who has any idea of the patient effort and tireless devotion to an ideal which actuated the pioneer investigator. To-day there must be over 250,000 motor cycles in use throughout the world. Twentyfive years ago there was but one extant. This machine was the progenitor of all motor cycles, and was the creation of the brain of the father of automobilism —Bottler Daimler.

valve possessed an angular seating, and was actuated from a camshaft. Its inlet valve was automatic in action. The engine was suspended vertically “amidships,” and drove a round belt, running over grooved pulleys. This machine also possessed that 1911 innovation (sic!) a free engine handle-starting device, Prom year to year the motor cycle has been undergoing more a process of refinement than one of revolutionary change. The immense store of knowledge gained during the past quarter eentury has been drawn on freely. The result is a single-track motor vehicle, possessing every refinement permitted by the dictates of advisability, and staunch enough to sustain a full effort by the hour, by the day, or by the year, The inherent sentimentality of the motor cyclist should teach him that even

I have before me, as I write, an illustration of this archaism. Quaint it certainly is in appearance, yet many points of its design are retained on the modern mount. It had a long-stroke engine, with internal flywheels. Its exhaust

a casual thought of the work of Daimler is but tribute due to a real benefactor.