http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/01/03/donts-for-women-on-bicycles-1895
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Resources
"A List of Don’ts for Women on Bicycles Circa 1895"
(11 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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:-) I've seen worse current lists of do's and don'ts! B-)
Posted 12 years ago # -
So, what do you think of my bloomers?
Posted 12 years ago # -
The writer seems almost as fixated on bloomers as some people are with lycra nowadays. I guess not much has really changed since then!
Don’t cultivate a “bicycle face.”
Priceless. If we had signatures on this forum, this would be mine.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Patients wore a facial expression “verging on the satanic” — variously dubbed “the sphinx-face,” and the “you-be-damned” expression.
Well I don't think that affliction has ever gone away..
Posted 12 years ago # -
@steveo, from the same article:
BICYCLE FACE
In the 1890s, America went bicycle crazy. Mass production combined with technical innovations — equal-size wheels, brakes, rubber inflatable tires — made two-wheelers both the “rich man’s recreation” and the “poor man’s horse.”
The boom also saw an explosion in bicycle-specific diagnoses. Doctors of the time reported “bicycle stoop” and “bicycle hernia,” as well as a syndrome called “bicycle heart,” caused by too-rapid acceleration. “Cyclist’s sore throat” came from ingested dust.
Oddest of all was “bicycle face” — “an expression either anxious, irritable, or at best stony.” The description came from one Dr. A. Shadwell, who coined the term in popular periodicals like the National Review. “Nearly all [cyclists] have it ,” Shadwell claimed in Medical Age, since it results from the “severe nervous strain” of balancing on two wheels. He wondered, “Did ever [a] pastime wear a mien so sombre?”
Not all doctors agreed. Writing in the American Medico-Surgical Bulletin in 1895, one physician speculated that “bicycle face” might be nothing more than “a variety of horse-face or locomotive-face.” A different writer in the same publication joked that too much discussion on the matter might give rise to another illness: “bicycle-face face.”
Posted 12 years ago # -
Clearly these ladies are discussing the merits of each other's bloomers:
Looks like she thinks everyone is looking at her:
Examples of reckless coasting behaviour below. The lady on the right has a clear case of 'bicycle face'.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@Kirst "So, what do you think of my bloomers? "
Dunno, show us a picture!
Posted 12 years ago # -
@crowriver - great pictures, I think they look very stylish and classy. No mudguards and no back brake in the bottom picture...fixies with chainguards, and how daring, coasting and no hands!!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Here's an even better one. No bloomers though. 1912's Pedal on Parliament.
Posted 12 years ago #
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