Bicycling for Life
by
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When you consider all of the ideas and inventions that were necessary before the bicycle could come into being, you have to admit it is a complex bit of machinery. Metallurgy had to have been invented. Some parts of the machine might have been made of wood, but it is not conceivable that the whole structure, with its necessary lightness, could have been made from that material. Then the wheel had to come along ... a clever device that eliminated the necessity of dragging heavy objects across the ground. The best speculation is that the wheel was first a cross section of a log. Among the various metal parts that became necessary were pedals, chains, and ball bearings. The pedals were to carry the muscle power from the feet to the chains, the chains to carry the muscle power to the wheels, and the ball bearings to permit the wheels to turn with a minimum of friction. For the more efficient machines, gear systems were installed. These transformed the pedaling speed into power at different ratios. Vehicles with hard wheels had been used long before the bicycle came into existence. In the nonindustrialized countries, they still are. These carts with wood or iron wheels are "bone knockers" that serve at low speeds. Once you aim toward a faster and lighter device, however, wood or iron will hardly do. The great discovery that took care of this problem came from the Central American Indians...rubber. They had learned that the sap from a certain tree could be dried to make a resilient material suitable for many uses. Besides being tough, this gum had the capacity to maintain its original shape no matter what pressure was applied. It could be pushed in, but as soon as the pressure was released, the rubber would come back to its original shape. This material made an interesting addition to the sports of the Indians. They evolved a complicated and serious game that depended on the use of hard rubber balls. Opposing teams tried to toss the ball through stone rings on opposite sides of a field. They were serious about this game. The captains, or even all of the members, of the losing team were frequently executed. Many other games have been invented based on the use of this most interesting material. In addition, we learned that it was pleasant to chew. However, the full use of rubber had to wait until the industrial age. Then inventors learned to use its resiliency in many ways; but perhaps the most valuable one, certainly as it affected the development of the bicycle, was as a covering for wheels. To take up the shock of rattling across an uneven surface, a strip of rubber was stretched around a wood or iron rim. This certainly reduced the jolt of hitting potholes or rocks. But a further discovery made the covering even better. Rubber, it turned out, was almost air-proof. Someone came up with the idea of filling a tube with pressurized air. Voila! ... the inflated tube or tire. This particular invention revolutionized all kinds of wheeled vehicles, and certainly bicycles. So the bicycle was a relatively complicated device for getting persons from one place to another in the 19th century, but by the 20th century it was no great shakes. After all, by that time automobiles were streaming out of the cities as if by spontaneous generation. Also, "superships" were crossing the oceans of the world, and winged boats flew above the seas and land in constantly increasing numbers and sizes. Walter Baumann was thinking about how these new ideas emerged and were spread as he walked toward the garage. After all, one of his teaching specialties was cultural change, and the crux of that was certainly the invention and diffusion of new ideas. He pulled open the heavy garage door and stared at the Peugeot 10-speed. It was a light, sleek machine of metal and rubber that would take an individual rapidly over the ground, using nothing but muscle power. But perhaps it was even more. Perhaps it was a machine for promoting ideas: a thinking machine.
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About the Book
As a mind-expanding machine, few machines can surpass the bicycle. As soon as s/he masters the mechanics, the bicyclist becomes an explorer. It has long been recognized that the two-wheeler will serve as a machine to provide bodily health, which is of course very true. However, it can also serve well as a machine to improve mental health and improve life quality. It can be a "thinking machine." And so Bicycling for Life. A bicyclist takes a journey of 65 years, from The Depression years to the new millennium, from a one-speed to a 24-speed. While in the here and now he takes a space journey from West Los Angeles to Yuma and back, during which he experiences a steady stream of flashbacks. He imagines all the significant bicycle events of his lifetime. But also he thinks about the serious life traumas that have recently occurred, a stroke and a divorce. At the end of the journey he has a newly revised life plan. And now, 20 years later, he is still bicycling and in good health, physical and mental. It is an example of a newly emergent therapy, therapeutic journaling. But even more, it is a salute to the bicycle in adventures as they really happen. Read about some happenings to the bicyclist who--
Writes accounts of his two recent life traumas, a stroke and a divorce.
About the Author
Arthur Niehoff is a retired anthropology professor who was born and grew up in Indiana. He got his B.A. at Indiana University and Ph.D. at Columbia. He has won a number of awards in his lifetime, the most important of which was a Fulbright Scholarship to India. He has done research in most parts of the world. He worked as a museum curator, researcher and college professor in many institutions. Publishing many books and articles during his teaching years, he started his own publishing company after retirement and has since published four more books of popular anthropology/history. He early learned how writing about life problems could help his mental health. He became a therapeutic journalist without even knowing the term. And most recently he published his first book length piece in the genre. A second, Surviving a Stroke, will appear next year. Now 78, he lives in a delightful hilltop place in San Diego County.