Thomas McCall (1834–1904) was a
Scottish cartwright
Cartwright may refer to:
* Wainwright (occupation), a tradesperson skilled in the making and repairing of carts or wagons
* Cartwright (surname), including the list of people
Places
; Australia
* Cartwright, New South Wales
; Canada
* Cartwr ...
.
Biography
McCall was born in
Penpont
Penpont is a village about west of Thornhill in Dumfriesshire, in the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland. It is near the confluence of the Shinnel Water and Scaur Water rivers in the foothills of the Southern Uplands. It has a populati ...
, he came to
Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...
at age 20, where he lived until his death (obituary 1904).
He built, in 1869, two versions of a two-wheeled
velocipede
A velocipede () is a human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle.
The term was probably first coined by Karl von Drais in French as ''vélocipède'' for the French translation o ...
with levers and rods tossing a crank on the rear wheel (''English Mechanic'' 5/14/1869 and 6/11/1869). This was a reaction to the French
velocipedes
A velocipede () is a human-powered land vehicle with one or more wheels. The most common type of velocipede today is the bicycle.
The term was probably first coined by Karl von Drais in French as ''vélocipède'' for the French translation of ...
, of the mid-1860s, with their front-wheel pedal cranks. In fact, this rear-wheel idea occupied seven more inventors in that year (Lessing 1991).
When in the 1880s a rich corn-trader named James Johnston started a campaign to attribute the "first true"
bicycle
A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist.
Bic ...
to his uncle
Kirkpatrick MacMillan and his native country of
Dumfries
Dumfries ( ; sco, Dumfries; from gd, Dùn Phris ) is a market town and former royal burgh within the Dumfries and Galloway council area of Scotland. It is located near the mouth of the River Nith into the Solway Firth about by road from the ...
in general, he attributed the McCall designs to MacMillan and dated them as of 1839. Skeptics allege that the reason McCall built a replica of his machines to be exhibited as MacMillan's at the 1896
Stanley Show, at the behest of Johnston, can only be a need of money (Clayton 1987). That alleged replica is now at Dumfries Observatory.
See also
*
History of the bicycle
Vehicles that have two wheels and require balancing by the rider date back to the early 19th century. The first means of transport making use of two wheels arranged consecutively, and thus the archetype of the bicycle, was the German ''draisine' ...
*
Treadle bicycle
A treadle bicycle is a bicycle powered by a treadle instead of the more common crank. Treadles were one of the mechanisms inventors tried in order to position the pedals away from the drive wheel hub before the development of the bicycle chain or ...
Further reading
N. Clayton: The First Bicycle, in: The Boneshaker #113, spring 1987, pp. 25–29
H. E. Lessing: Around Michaux - myths and realities, in: Proc. of the 2nd ICHC, Saint Étienne 1991, pp. 21–29
Obituary in ''Kilmarnock Standard'', April 9, 1904
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCall, Thomas
Scottish inventors
1834 births
1904 deaths
People from Dumfries and Galloway
Sustainable_transport_pioneers