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Bicycle:
A Public Radio Commentary
by Bill Hammack
Listen using RealAudio
Please watch out if you live in my neighborhood. After twenty
years of driving to work I've rediscovered my bicycle. Now I zoom
into work in four minutes and thirty seconds, yelling the whole
way at anyone who walks in my bike lane.
The bicycle, although invented 5000 years after the wheel, was
the first effective human-propelled vehicle. A human being on a
bike is the most efficient way to move a weight around. A human
just walking on the ground takes about as much energy, per pound,
as a horse; but give that person a bike and they'll use one-fifth
of the energy to move that same pound. On this basis it makes
them more efficient than even a jet.
The secret is the bike's ingenious design. It takes maximum
advantage of the strengths of the human body. A bike uses the
most powerful muscles - the thighs - and it uses them in just the
right motion. There is nothing more natural than the smooth
rotary action of the feet. And on the bike they rotate at an
ideal seventy revolutions per minute. The result: A single turn
of the pedals advances the bike sixteen feet or so making it
extremely easy to get from here to there.
The bike truly revolutionized our world. It accelerated the
proliferation of machines in our lives. It did this by creating a
huge demand for mass-produced precision parts, the average bike
uses about 1,000 individual pieces. This brought forth new
methods to produce metal parts. For example, bicycles needed
bearings to make their wheels spin. This created a whole
industry, so that by the turn of the 20th century bearings were
available for all sort of machines.
Also, the bicycle directed our minds toward the possibilities of
independent long distance travel. Once this possibility appeared
in our minds, the bike led conceptually to the car, and all sorts
of other motorized vehicles.
But to me, none of these are more wonderful than the bike. It
demands few energy resources, contributes little to pollution,
and makes a positive contribution to health. It can be regarded
as the most benevolent of machines - as long as you stay out of
my bike lane.
Copyright 2001 William S. Hammack Enterprises
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