Pierre Michaux

Pierre Michaux (* June 26, 1813 in Bar- le- Duc, † 1883 in Paris) was car manufacturer and founder of the works was opened in 1869 Michaux, a bicycle factory. With Louis -Guillaume Perreaux he developed the Michaux - Perreaux steam valve.

Pierre Michaux and his son Ernest Michaux considered as a possible inventor of the pedal drive the bike. A story tells that Pierre Michaux mounted on a wheel to be repaired cranks and pedals. At the World Fair of 1867 he led before two copies of his Velocipedes, attracting international attention. Together with the brothers Olivier he then founded the company Michaux & Co.

The Legend

According to legend, received Piere Michaux in 1861 by a Parisian hat manufacturers named Brunel an old trolley for repair; older sources mention however of a tricycle. The Master, having the vehicle repaired, it brought back his son Ernest. This latter had perceived the travel over long distances as tiring and his father made ​​the suggestion to drive the front wheel similar to a grindstone with bottom bracket.

Old drawings by Michaux senior show, however, that the Kutschenbauer not thinking straight away to a Tretkurbelmechanismus on the front wheel, but first on a drive with a drive rod. A first sketch shows a crank on the rear wheel, which had to be shot with a long hand rod. In a second design, the hand rod was rotatably mounted on a front wheel spoke, similar to a locomotive or a bicycle by Thomas McCall. But even this was not technically realized, but only the version with pedals on a pedal crank right on the front wheel.

Some older bike books claiming Pierre Michaux had already made his invention in 1855. But his son Ernest denied this in a letter of 1893, and assured there 1861 was the correct year value.

• Inventor
• Bicycle history
• Frenchman
• Born in 1813
• Died in 1883
• Man