A Sunday in Hell - Hackney Bicycle Film Society (HBFS)

The Hackney Bicycle Film Society are pleased to invite you to a talk about the history of the bicycle on Friday December 10th at our usual location the Calthorpe.

This is in addition to our showing of Bellville Rendezvous on Monday 13th December.

The talk will be given by Bicycle Historian Iain Boal videos of him talking can be seen at http://www.copenhagenize.com/2010/04/green-machine-by-iain-boal-all-5.html

So it all started in 1817 when Drais invented his Draissine, an alternative to the horse, when during the Napoleonic wars fodder was in short supply, or was it Leonardo da Vinci who invented the bicycle?

In the 1880’s when Starley introduced the Rover Safety Bike, a 3rd of all patent applications were for bicycle related inventions his Uncle had previously invented the Penny Farthing. 

When Dunlop patented and developed the pneumatic tyre in 1888 there was a massive boom in cycling this lead to a shortage of India Rubber which then was sourced direct from the Amazon jungle. Belgian King Leopald’s answer to this shortage was to use the Congo where an inferior form of latex was available and to force the Congolese to go into the jungle to collect the latex, strict targets were set for collection the penalty for failing to meet the target was hand removal and resulting holocaust lead to the deaths of between 6 and 10 million. 

In the First World War the Bersaglieri Division stopped the Austrian’s invading Italy the bicycle was key to their mobility a lesson the US had not learned in the Vietnam War when 180,000 bicycles were key to the Ho Chi Minh trail which supplied the North Vietnamese army with all it needed to defeat them.

The Show is on Friday 10th December & starts at 7:30pm
At: The Calthorpe Arms
252 Grays Inn Road
London WC1X 8JR
Suggested donation £3
Please contact us to say you will be attending as places will be limited
Contact details
Our website          : http://hackneybikeworkshop.com
Our E-mail           : hackneybicyclefilmsociety(AT)gmail.com
Our Phone            : 07940 121 513
This is an open show so you do not need to be a member to attend so please pass the word there is a poster at http://www.flickr.com/photos/funny_cyclist/5215071823/