Karl Drais

Karl Drais (1785 to 1851) was a German inventor and forest official from Baden, remembered as the inventor of the bicycle. In 1817 he rode his pedal-less Laufmaschine, or running machine, from Mannheim to a coaching inn near Schwetzingen, about seven kilometres, in a little over an hour. The machine, also called the draisine or dandy horse, held the two-wheeler principle later used by bicycles and motorcycles. Drais also built an early keyboard typewriter in 1821, a stenograph, a device to record piano music, an early meat grinder and a foot-driven rail handcar. A liberal in politics, he lived in Brazil from 1822 to 1827, gave up his noble title in 1848 and died poor in Karlsruhe in 1851.