Kirkpatrick Macmillan Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Kirkpatrick Macmillan
OCCUPATION: Inventor
BIRTH DATE: c. September 02, 1812
DEATH DATE: c. January 26, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH: Thornhill, Scotland

Best Known For

Kirkpatrick Macmillan is best known for inventing the first pedal bicycle.

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Kirkpatrick Macmillan

APA Style

Kirkpatrick Macmillan. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 06:38, May 25, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/kirkpatrick-macmillan-9393985.

Harvard Style

Kirkpatrick Macmillan. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/kirkpatrick-macmillan-9393985 [Accessed 25 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Kirkpatrick Macmillan." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 25 2013, 06:38 http://www.biography.com/people/kirkpatrick-macmillan-9393985.

MHRA Style

"Kirkpatrick Macmillan," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/kirkpatrick-macmillan-9393985 [accessed May 25, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Kirkpatrick Macmillan," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/kirkpatrick-macmillan-9393985 (accessed May 25, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Kirkpatrick Macmillan [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 25] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/kirkpatrick-macmillan-9393985.

Bluebook Style

Kirkpatrick Macmillan, http://www.biography.com/people/kirkpatrick-macmillan-9393985 (last visited May 25, 2013).

AMA Style

Kirkpatrick Macmillan. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/kirkpatrick-macmillan-9393985. Accessed May 25, 2013.

Synopsis

Kirkpatrick Macmillan was a blacksmith born in Scotland, who in 1837 built a bicycle on which the rider pushed himself along with his feet. Three years later Macmillan had applied the crank to his machine to make the world's first pedal cycle, with wooden frame and iron-tired wheels. His invention was never patented, and for many years it was credited to one of his imitators.

Inventor of the Bicycle

Kirkpatrick Macmillan was born in 1812 near Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway, in southwest Scotland. In 1837 Macmillan, a blacksmith, built a 'dandy' horse—a kind of bicycle on which the rider pushed himself along with his feet. Three years later he had applied the crank to his machine to make the world's first pedal cycle, with wooden frame and iron-tired wheels. His invention was never patented, and for many years it was credited to one of his imitators, Gavin Dalzell.