Forerunners of the bicycle are depicted on ancient Greek tombstones and in ancient Greek and Egyptian drawings. The first real bicycle is considered to be the célérifère, a two-wheeled wooden horse designed by Comte Mede de Sivrac of France around 1790. The rider straddled a horizontal bar attached to a wheel at either end, grasped the fixed handlebar, and propelled forward by pushing with alternate feet. Authorities disagree as to whether Sivrac ever actually built his célérifère; in any event, it was no more than a toy. A major improvement in two-wheeler design, perfected in 1818, came from the German Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun. This "Draisienne" or "Draisine" featured a steering bar attached to a spindle on the front wheel. A craze for the machine developed among fashionable people in France and then in England, where...