Pierre Michaux

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Pierre Michaux (June 26, 1813 - 1883) was a blacksmith who furnished parts for the carriage trade in Paris during the 1850s and 1860s. In 1864 he formed a partnership with the Olivier brothers under his own name, Michaux et Cie ("Michaux and company"), which was the first company to construct bicycles with pedals, a machine which was called a velocipede at the time.

The design was based on the invention the previous year of Pierre Lallement, the only difference being that on the Michaux bicycles the serpentine frame was made of two pieces of cast iron bolted together, instead of wood, which made it more elegant and enabled mass-production. In 1865 a blacksmith from Lyon named Gabert designed a variation on the frame which was of a single diagonal piece of wrought iron and was much stronger -- by that time Lallement had emigrated to America, where he filed the first and only patent for the pedal bicycle.

The Michaux firm first started producing bicycles for public sale in 1867. It soon became evident that the serpentine cast-iron frames were not sturdy enough, and with competing manufacturers already producing bicycles with the diagonal frame, the Oliviers insisted that Michaux follow suit. The partnership was dissolved in 1869, and Michaux and his company faded into oblivion as the first bicycle craze came to an end in France and the USA. Only in England did the bicycle remain popular, and England was the site of all of the next major improvements to the machine.

Michaux is often given credit for the idea of attaching pedals to the dandy horse, and thus for the invention of the bicycle -- however, bicycle historian David V. Herlihy has documented that it was in fact Lallement who deserves that credit.

Pierre's son Ernest also worked for his father's carriage supply company and later the velocipede company.