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On June 20, 1897, The Salt Lake Tribune opined: “Not many years ago the bicycle was looked upon as a mere toy, a kind of dandy-horse, and the riders were regarded as fit subjects for pity. That time, however, is a thing of the past.” The paper was not just talking about the growing trend of bicycle clubs forming throughout the nation, but about a specific, and rather extraordinary, bicycle trip.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.
The appeal of one strange object, which achieved dizzying popularity in my lifetime, and today lives on mostly for nostalgia, is not so difficult to explain. All you need to do is turn one on and wait.
