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Safety bikes Feat cycle cameras

& box Camera photo: The National Museum of American History In the1890s, William andThomas Allencycled Sachtleben theglobe. Around 400 S later, he returned to the same city an an city same to the returned later, he miles 14,000 almost and years Three with a diameter50-inch front wheel. Francisco atop a Columbia bicycle British-born Thomas Stevens left San of 1884, spring the In art. imitated life the fleet but precarioushigh-wheeler, epic such an journey. capable of hardly were bone shakers, later dubbed of time, that wheels thecrude for ofcourse, fictitious, world the on He was a bicycle. around riding Schopp, American an about Jonathan of articles a series carried of Paris, Illustré Vélocipède T of theirphotosrecently cametolight.Historian of ure ry 2013-14december/j anuary A generation later, during the era of box c

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cycling journal, Le Le journal, cycling 1869,In pioneer the of fantasy. stuff the initially was wheels two on tour global of a he possibility photos photos fe sachtleben images courtesy of ucla of courtesy images sachtleben t old forOrdinary road supremacy, grand the challenged quickly vehicle novel The sprocket. and by achain powered wheel rear its bicycle, safety celebrity. international enamoured of bicycle touring that the British Isles, they became so safety bicycles. After tooling around Singer hard-tyred two acquired they Louis, they sailed to Liverpool where from Washington University in St July 1890, shortly after graduating Jr. In Allen, Thomas and Sachtleben two young William Americans, future’. of the bicycle ‘the calling what some were already correctly astride feat to top Stevens’ try should someone that inevitable perhaps to the general population. It was of cycling joys the to bring promising That distinction would fall to But along came the new-fangled y b a mer i ke David VHerlihy American ministerAmerican to Great Britain, people.’ common the and nature of unsophisticated scenes our bicycles, unfettered, among the We on love hotels. to roam modern artificial, and of trains tired since long convenience. For our wepart, have There is such a thing as too much ‘is like staying in your own country. observed, Sachtleben class,’ by first always ‘Travelling ideals. its shared cycling maps and guides. The lads roads and signage, and also published based organisation lobbied for better London- popular The old. 12 years the Cyclists’ Touring Club, then a mere Allen and Sachtleben promptly joined c Bikes, journey. world’ the for a‘round to prepare decided they The cyclists appealed to the amera, a amera,

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Safety bikes & box cameras

more compact decided to end their correspondence. than conventional They also determined that their cameras, making Minnehahas were too fragile for the them ideal for journey ahead. Allen thus made a 4 cycle touring. return trip London where he acquired Moreover, there two sturdy forty-pound Humber was virtually no bicycles, bringing them back to set up involved. Athens. (Both still survive: Allen’s As the early Kodak is owned by the London Science ads proclaimed, ‘You Museum and Sachtleben’s by the Los push the button, we Angeles Museum of Natural History.) do the rest.’ So as not to be recognised aboard Three years later, the train, a potential embarrassment after having covered some for a round the world cyclist, 18,000 miles on the ground, Allen donned a disguise that a third of that total in Asia, Allen included spectacles, top hat, and and Sachtleben would secure their cane, all borrowed from the elder own place in history. One American Kapsembelis. Allen’s concern was journalist proclaimed them ‘the not entirely contrived. Gödrich, greatest travellers since Marco Polo’, the German cyclist, had taken a and their remarkable performance strong dislike to the Americans and helped to spark the great bicycle was regularly bashing them in the boom of the mid 1890s. German cycling press, denouncing Here, then, is a sketch of them as frauds who rarely cycled. their adventures during the year 1891. Into the Relaxing in Greece Disregarding widespread advice to After traversing Europe in the avoid turbulent Turkey, the lads sailed autumn of 1890, the cyclists settled in to Constantinople in March 1891. Athens to wait out the winter. Thanks They moved in with an Armenian to Sachtleben’s salvaged diary, we doctor and his family and spent know that they enjoyed a rich social several weeks there while they life. The cast of intriguing characters honed their travel plans and roamed they befriended included Serope about the city, taking numerous Gürdjian, an Armenian revolutionary photographs. 5 who had just been expelled from At last, in April, the doctor’s Constantinople; the Kapsembelis twelve-year-old son led them to the brothers, the wealthy sons of a local Bosporus, where they boarded a small textile manufacturer; and Anton boat with their all their gear. Once on Robert Todd Lincoln, the eldest von Gödrich, formerly an officer in the Asian side, their adventures began son of the slain president, to help In the photos the German Army whose favourite in earnest. Here they faced entirely 1 Surveying the them secure foreign passports. He volcanic terrain pastime was to ride his beloved high- foreign languages, cultures, and diets, reluctantly obliged. And although 2 Original kodak wheeler. with little or no recourse to railroads. camera they were wealthy enough to tour 3 One of the The cyclists met fellow Americans At times, rocks were thrown at without sponsorship, they accepted cyclists flanked as well, including Archibald Loudon them and aggressive dogs snapped by armed two new Minnehaha bicycles guards on Snowden, the American minister at their heels. When they pulled into horseback with cushion tyres from a London 4 Riding in the to Greece, whose son coveted a towns to settle into a grimy manufacturer. They also arranged to Acropolis bicycle, and James Irving Manatt, 5 A mogul’s send progress reports to the London- mosque the American consul, whose comely based Penny Illustrated Paper. 6 Hired guards daughter Winnie became Sachtleben’s helping to ford To illustrate their accounts (the the bicycles love interest. 6 press was just beginning to publish and gear across The three-month lull in Athens a stream photographs), the lads purchased also gave the Americans ample two novel Kodak cameras. Because time to wander through the they used film rather than glass plates, city and capture spontaneous they were considerably lighter and scenes of everyday life. Their cameras and bicycles invariably drew “Allen and sachtleben huge crowds of curious onlookers. joined the cyclists’ In their spare time, touring club, then a they plotted their ride across Asia. Displeased mere 12 years old” with the editor of PIP, they

CTC.ORG.UK cycle 49 Safety bikes & box cameras

inn, the locals invariably In the photos surrounded them and demanded 7 Sachtleben a cycling demonstration. The cycles over the Gallatin Bridge authorities frequently compelled linking Pera them to hire armed guards on and Stamboul 8 One of 7 horseback to escort them safely to the Humber bicycles, with their next destination. Hagia Sophia Riding over gentle hills, the cyclists looming in the background emerged on the Angora Plateau 9 Sachtleben where nomadic tribesmen tended to strolls with an officer on the the famous sheep, as they had done grounds of for centuries. After visiting Angora the Russian Cathedral in (now the capital city of Ankara), they Tashkent witnessed the start of Ramadan, the traditional period of fasting. They lingered for three months in Sivas, while Allen recovered from typhoid fever. At one point, a mule kicked out the spokes of Sachtleben’s rear wheel, forcing him to hunt down a blacksmith. Near Kara-Hissar, they again while Sachtleben had to carry their bicycles and gear recovered from cholera. across a furious mountain stream. ‘They are plucky fellows and are thoroughly American,’ their host, averaged 75 miles a day, nearly double Crossing Persia the missionary William Whipple their usual output. Reaching in August, they were reported to an American newspaper. forced to suspend their ride once ‘We have had them as our guests for The Russian Empire three weeks, and have enjoyed talking In early November, they finally to them concerning their route reached the Russian border and blew 8 from Liverpool [to] here… It seems past the bewildered officials. The marvellous how they can travel bright city of Askabad, in present through Turkey and Persia without day Turkmenistan, offered the weary the languages or guides. They have wheelmen a welcome dose of modern had to ford rivers, carrying their civilisation. wheels, and climbing high mountain The governor held a dinner in passes, etc., and live native-like in their honour, but he insisted that every place they stop.’ they take the newly inaugurated In Persia, too, they had to cope trans-Caspian railway for the next with throngs of curious citizens, six hundred miles, to avoid crossing rudimentary inns, and unwanted a desert. Feeling pinched for time and escorts on horseback, not to mention in no mood for further suffering, the extreme climatic conditions. In cyclists complied. , the temperature soared After a stop in Bukhara, they to 120 degrees. They were again reached Samarkand, an exotic compelled to stop while they waited Oriental city filled with blue domes, for Russian passports. minarets, and the ruins of ancient Finally, the Russian consulate persuaded them to continue east across a desert to the holy city of 9 Meshed, where, he assured them, his colleague would fulfil their request. Armed at last with the necessary documents, the wheelmen took the military highway heading northwest to “a mule kicked out the the Russian Empire. Although they were spokes of sachtleben’s crossing a rugged rear wheel, so he mountain range, the road was so hard sought a blacksmith” and smooth that they

CTC.ORG.UK cycle 51 Feat ure Safety bikes & box cameras Capturing the journey palaces and tombs. Men wearing elite with their broad knowledge of Allen and Sachtleben white turbans strolled about the busy world affairs. demonstrated that virtually any one could streets, pausing to barter with street become a proficient vendors. Back to San Francisco cycle photographer After a week’s stay, the cyclists Allen and Sachtleben spent the by employing both remounted their bicycles and headed balance of 1892 crossing China via the safety bicycle along the highway to Tashkent, the the Gobi desert. The astonished and the compact capital of present day Uzbekistan, at American ambassador in Peking film camera. that time a major military base and a (now Beijing), Charles Denby, That was no sprawling city of 100,000, including a interviewed the lads and sent a trivial revelation. few of the czar’s exiled relatives. lengthy report back to Washington, The seductive Digging in for the long winter, they urging that the government consider idea of using a bicycle to transport moved in with a German-speaking adopting bicycles for military use. a camera was as old businessman who pampered them Reaching San Francisco on as the bicycle itself, yet with hearty meals and freely flowing Christmas Day 1892, Allen and a practical arrangement vodka. Thanks to his high social Sachtleben were swarmed by prying had proved highly elusive. The standing, the cyclists joined the city’s journalists, who made them instant ‘wet process’ used to develop glass plate party circuit, impressing the local celebrities. The Overman Wheel negatives in the 1860s required a portable Company happily furnished them dark room and an assortment of chemicals, an with their fourth set of wheels, shiny impossible load for the bone-shaker. True, the black Victor pneumatics. ‘dry’ process introduced in the high-wheel era As they made their way to New enabled a few hearty individuals to practise cycle photography (notably Frank Lenz of ), York City in the spring of 1893, yet the hardware, preparation, and skill required 10 cycling clubs greeted them and threw remained considerable. lavish banquets in their honour. During their journey, Allen and Sachtleben took Thanks in part to Allen and about 1,200 circular snapshots, 3.5 inches in Sachtelben’s evangelism and the diameter. Until recently, these photos were lost to marvellous photos they took (and posterity, save for a handful of poorly reproduced that UCLA now holds), the great images taken in Europe and China that were bicycle boom was underway. published in a few magazines, as well as their post-ride book, Across Asia on a Bicycle. Fortunately, some 400 images spanning the year 1891, when they travelled from Athens, Greece, to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, have now been revealed. The University of California at 11 Los Angeles, which owns the collection, recently scanned the fragile and highly combustible nitrate negatives, a costly and complicated process, with excellent results. How these negatives and related papers got to UCLA in the first place is a remarkable story in its own right. According to Gia Aivazian, a former UCLA librarian, they were rescued when workmen began to clean out Sachtleben’s former residence in Houston sometime in the 1960s In the photos (he died in 1953). They 10 Striking out on the old were dropping boxes caravan road, of his belongings from a beside the Kizil River third-floor window into a 11 From left to backyard bonfire, but one right: Gürdjian, the elder missed its target. Its contents Kapsambelis, exploded onto the lawn and a and Allen (in curious passerby retrieved the disguise) wait by the train relics that now comprise UCLA’s station for Sachtleben Collection. Allen’s train to

London Photo: The National Museum of American History

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