17 October 2009

Nice wheels


I'm intrigued by the contraption that the elderly gentleman is riding in this old photo. It looks like the adult equivalent of a child's pedal-car. I think maybe it might be a velocipede. He looks like he's taking it to work in the fields.

Found at Histoire de l'Oeil, where there's no apparent explanation (or source).

5 comments:

  1. Or ... perhaps with that scythe, he's meant to represent Father Time or Death, and the whole thing is a metaphor for young vs. old.

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  2. He's going to kill her for her pneumatic tyres.
    Even though they don't fit his wheels.

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  3. I do like the "Father Time" analogy - certainly looks more like that than a grim reaper.

    I still like the ?velocipede as such, but the image as youth/age contrast is also quite evocative.

    A TinEye reverse image search yielded only one hit (http://www.elmundo.es/elmundolibro/lujos_papel.html). The only clue I can decipher is that the picture was made in France ~1860. Perhaps Titam will recognize it re source or photographer.

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  4. It looks like a Victorian bicycle. Here is an exemple. It also looks quite close to a circa 1898 Coventry Machinist's Co. adult tricycle which I found here.
    It might also be a high wheel tricycle, though it was mostly for ladies. Many mechanical innovations were originally invented for tricycles: Rack and pinion steering, the differential, and band brakes, etc.
    This started puzzling me, and I investigated it little bit more. I found quite a similar looking tricycle located in the Wibaux Museum.
    I'll keep looking, but for now, I don't recognize the source or photographer.

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  5. Thank you, Mlle. The more times I try to Google it, the more I am impressed by the many creations of inventive minds.

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