DRAISINE

Draisine is evolution of the human-powered transportation device that was originally devised by
the German Baron Karl Drais and his “Laufmaschine” bicycle that was made in 1817. What this
inventor brought to the European market in early 19th century was two wooden wheels
connected with the main beam that housed simple controlling rod and seating place. Users who
drove this device did not have access to pedals and chain drive like on modern bicycles, but had
to reach with their legs to the ground and propel themselves forward by either walking or
running.

This simple design very quickly received many upgrades from the inventors from all around the
world, but the French name “draisine” that described this Dandy Horse design continued to live
on by describing another transport device – a rail vehicle with three or four wheels that was
powered either by the service personnel or by diesel engines. These devices started being used all
around the world as very easy and simple way of transporting personnel and maintenance tools
across railway infrastructure. Because all these draisine rail vehicles were made to be as light as
possible, one or two people could easily operate and propel them. Manual driving mechanisms
varied from one draisine to another, ranging from hand lever, hand pedals, leg pedals for users
who were sitting down on the floor, a four wheeled platform with two full bicycle sets placed on
either side of it, or even a two-wheeled bicycle that had additional stabilization pieces that
enabled it to remain stable while being locked to the structure of one rail. In 20th and 21st
century, these railroad devices are rarely called as draisine. They are mostly referred as handcars,
speeders or road-rail vehicles (vehicles that can drive both on rails and traditional roads).

This week’s Smithsonian Snapshot celebrates National Bike Month with the forerunner of the
modern bicycle: this ca. 1818 draisine.

In 1817, Karl Drais, a young inventor in Baden, Germany, designed and built a two-wheeled,
wooden vehicle that was straddled and propelled by walking swiftly. Drais called it the
laufmaschine or “running machine.”

A forester for the Grand Duke of Baden, Drais used his laufmaschine to inspect the Duke’s
forest. The laufmaschine soon became a novelty among Europeans, who named it the “draisine.”

By 1818, the draisine craze reached the United States. Charles Wilson Peale, a well-known
portrait artist, helped to popularize the draisine by displaying one in his museum in Philadelphia.
Many American examples were made, and rentals and riding rinks became available in Eastern
cities.

By 1820, the high cost of the vehicle, combined with its lack of practical value, limited its appeal
and made it little more than an expensive toy. The two-wheeled vehicle would not become
sustained until pedals were added in the late 1800s.

Donated to the Smithsonian in 1964, this draisine is the oldest cycle in its collection of 61 cycles.
They reflect social trends and technological developments that have shaped the growth and
popularity of riding since 1818.

To view more bicycles, motorcycles, automobiles and other vehicles at the Smithsonian, visit the
National Museum of American History’s “America on the Move” exhibition.

Types of modern draisine rail vehicles:

-Two wheel draisine

-Three wheel draisine

-Four wheel draisine

-Hand propelled Manual

-Leg propelled

-Motorized personnel draisine

-Motorized carriage draisine

-Road to rail converted cars

-Military rail draisine vehicles (small armored draisines or train cars that were sometimes
weaponized, used for scouting, protecting trains, and other use case scenarios. They stopped
being used after World War II).