Reinventing the ‘Dandy Horse’ [patent]

A ‘Dandy Horse’ was the colloquial name given to a primitive pedal-less bicycle which was a fashionable mode of transport in Europe around 1819.

Fast forward to 2008, when a US patent was granted for an ‘Apparatus for Shifting Weight from a Runner to a Wheeled Frame ‘

– which, at first glance seems remarkably similar. But, unlike the original, the new invention “transfers part of the weight of the runner/walker to the wheeled frame by an elastic means“. Whereas the Dandy Horse was decidedly non-elastic.

Note: Followers of Nominative Determinism may notice the inventor’s name – Mr. Dandy.

Research research by Martin Gardiner