Kirkpatrick Macmillan biography

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.