The Svea Velocipede was an early

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 ...

type invented in the 19th century by the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

brothers

Fredrik Ljungström Fredrik Ljungström (16 June 1875 – 18 February 1964) was a Swedish engineer, technical designer, and industrialist. Considered one of the foremost inventors of Sweden, Fredrik Ljungström accounted for hundreds of technical patents alon ...

and

Birger Ljungström Birger Ljungström (4 June 1872 – 17 November 1948) was a Swedish engineer, technical designer, industrialist, and inventor. Biography Birger Ljungström was born at Uddevalla in Stockholm, Sweden to cartographer Jonas Patrik Ljun ...

. The bicycle employed the today well-established bicycle frame but the drive of the wheel worked according to a completely different principle. The inventors used lever, Stubs Iron Wire Gauge and

eccentric Eccentricity or eccentric may refer to: * Eccentricity (behavior), odd behavior on the part of a person, as opposed to being "normal" Mathematics, science and technology Mathematics * Off-center, in geometry * Eccentricity (graph theory) of a v ...

instead of chainring, since the bicycle chains used at the time often cracked for a variety of reasons. The bike was driven by pressing the pedal en levers alternately, braked by stepping both pedals at the same time. The freewheel of the Svea Velocipede was patented in 1892. In connection with

Alfred Nobel Alfred Bernhard Nobel ( , ; 21 October 1833 – 10 December 1896) was a Swedes, Swedish chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He is best known for having bequeathed his fortune to establish the Nobel ...

, the project was further developed and the product sold in a limited quantity of units in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, and the United Kingdom, under the company name The New Cycle Company, to which also

George Spaak George Spaak (11 February 1877 - 25 February 1966) was a Swedish engineer. Biography George Spaak was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He was the father of physician Ragnar Spaak (1907-1979). He was the brother-in-law of Birger and Fredrik Ljun ...

was connected. It remained in

serial production Serial may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media The presentation of works in sequential segments * Serial (literature), serialised literature in print * Serial (publishing), periodical publications and newspapers * Serial (radio and televisio ...

on the market for about 10 years until hitherto technological problems in the production of bicycle chains were overcome. Although the general preference for circular pedal mechanisms became clear with time, later bicycle models on the market would adopt its foot-operated bicycle brakes as well as its free wheeling hubs. The Svea Velocipede won a Gold Medal of the General Art and Industrial Exposition of Stockholm in 1897, and a Silver Medal of the Exposition Universelle of Paris in 1900. The model has units represented at the Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology, and the

Nordic Museum The Nordic Museum ( sv, Nordiska museet) is a museum located on Djurgården, an island in central Stockholm, Sweden, dedicated to the cultural history and ethnography of Sweden from the early modern period (in Swedish history, it is said to be ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Literature

* Sigvard Strandh: ''Die Maschine: Geschichte, Elemente, Funktion. Ein enzyklopädisches Sachbuch.'' Herder Verlag, 1980. P. 220 and Fig. 221 * Fredrik Ljungström 1875-1964 Uppfinnare och inspiratör (1999) by

Olle Ljungström Lars Olof "Olle" Gustaf Ljungström (12 August 1961 – 4 May 2016) was a Swedish singer, songwriter, and musician. Ljungström grew up in Vaxholm. He was vocalist and guitarist in the group Reeperbahn from 1979 to 1984; since the early 1990s he ...

, Sveriges Mekanisters Riksförening,

External links

{{commons, Svea Velocipede
Website '' The brothers Ljungström '' of the '' Tekniska museet, Stockholm '' (Swedish, with photo Svea bicycle). Retrieved on May 22, 2011.
* https://digitaltmuseum.se/021026305443/cykel * https://digitaltmuseum.se/021026363810/cykel * https://newsroom.notified.com/regionmuseet-kristianstad/posts/pressreleases/upp--och-nedtramparen-svea-visas-i-minnesluck * https://riksarkivet.se/nobelutstallning * http://cykelhistoriska.se/old/svea.htm * https://abandowest.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/onodigt-att-veta-del-11-ej-saxat-ur-var-jord/ Bicycle models History of cycling Cycle manufacturers of Sweden Swedish inventions

See also

Literature

External links