Object Details
- Description
- The Rex Cycle Company of Chicago, Illinois manufactured this three-wheel bicycle in 1898. The bicycle was designed by Bohn C. Hicks, who obtained three patents on this type of machine
- (patents, 557,387, 557388 and 561710) in 1896. While it might seem inconsistent to apply the term "bicycle" to a 3-wheel machine, this is not a tricycle in the usual sense of the word. The unusual construction of the Rex cycle resulted from Hicks' efforts to produce a machine "particularly adapted to absorb or minimize the shocks incident to riding over obstructions." The seat was mounted on a tube attached to pivot points on the front wheel and the rear third wheel, a design to allow the wheels to undulate over bumps with minimal jostling to the rider.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Rex Cycle Co.
- date made
- 1898
- Credit Line
- Gift of Anne, Margaret, Katherine, and Nicholas Schmidt
- Object Name
- Bicycle, 3-Wheel
- bicycle, 3-wheeler
- Other Terms
- Bicycle, 3-Wheel; Road
