Meyer-Guilmet' bicycle

This curious machine entered the museum’s collection after the retrospective bicycle exhibition co-organised by the Touring-Club de France in 1906. At this event, it was presented as the first chain-driven bicycle, dated 1868 and attributed to the bicycle manufacturer Eugène Meyer, therefore as a French invention preceding that of the Englishman Henry J. Lawson by ten years. Uncertainties as to its provenance, the absence of historic traces and the heterogeneous nature of its design and construction are still debated by experts unsure of its authenticity and dating. Meyer was renowned for the quality and finesse of his cycles. In 1869 he registered a patent for metallic wheels mounted under tension with retaining nuts on the flange of the hub. He also lightened the structure of his bicycles using hollow frames.