The father of the bicycle

Karl Freiherr von Drais was a noble German forest official and significant inventor in the Biedermeier period.

Drais was a prolific inventor, who invented the Laufmaschine, also later called the velocipede, draisine or Parisienne, also nicknamed the hobby horse or dandy horse. This was his most popular and widely recognized invention. It incorporated the two-wheeler principle that is basic to the bicycle and motorcycle and was the beginning of mechanized personal transport. This was the earliest form of a bicycle, without pedals.

Drais also invented the earliest typewriter with a keyboard (1821). He later developed an early stenograph machine which used 16 characters (1827), a device to record piano music on paper (1812), the first meat grinder, and a wood-saving cooker including the earliest hay chest. He also invented two four-wheeled human powered vehicles (1813-1814), the second of which he presented in Vienna to the congress carving up Europe after Napoleon’s defeat. In later years he developed a foot-driven human powered railroad vehicle (1840) whose name “Draisine” is used even today for railroad handcars.