Pierre Michaux

Pierre Michaux (1813 to 1883) was a French blacksmith from Bar le Duc who supplied parts to the carriage trade in Paris in the 1850s and 1860s. He is often credited with the idea of fitting pedals and cranks to the front wheel of a draisine, producing the Michaudine velocipede that became the forerunner of the modern bicycle. In 1868 he formed Michaux et Cie with the Olivier brothers, the first company to mass-produce pedal-powered velocipedes, but the partnership dissolved in 1869 after the heavy cast-iron frames proved too weak and rivals adopted a diagonal frame. The credit is disputed: bicycle historians say the idea may equally have come from his son Ernest or from Pierre Lallement, who filed the only patent for a pedal bicycle in America.