This page has been validated.
EARLY HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF THE BICYCLE
3
the former was a Birmingham gun maker, the latter came from a cutlery shop at Banbury.
Gradually these people started workshops of their own and with local capital and their own savings embarked themselves as manufacturers of bicycles.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/78/The_Cycle_Industry_%281921%29_p17.jpg/500px-The_Cycle_Industry_%281921%29_p17.jpg)
Fig. 1
"FACILIS DESCENSUS"
A boneshaker built about 1868
Matters progressed rapidly, and like all new trades it attracted other mechanics and engineers to the city of Coventry. Names such as Haynes and Jeffries, Rudge, Warman, Laxon, Hazlewood, George Townend, Hosier, Hillman, Harrington, etc., are all associated with the early days of bicycle manufacture.
In other towns, Parr, at Leicester, Robinson and