In the Beginning.

Two wheeled vehicles that were pushed along ala Fred Flintson were invented previously, but the actual wheel-propelled bicycle that we know and love was invented in1839 by Kirkpatrick MacMillan of Scotland. He was a blacksmith at Courthill Smithy of Keir Mill, Dumfriesshire. Since he never patented his invention, his bicycle was rapidly and widely copied.
Macmillan was born at Keir in 1812.

Fellow villagers thought him 'mad' for dreaming up an idea such as the first pedal-driven velocipede. But, although known locally as 'Daft Pate', he became in 1839 the inventor of the pedal-driven bicycle, used by millions today.

He rode his cumbersome machine 68 miles over rough roads from his tiny smithy home (still intact today) to Glasgow, visiting his two school teacher brothers in the city. In June 1842 the inventor was fined 5 Scots shillings for speeding at 8 mph into the Gorbals and knocking down a little girl in the crush that awaited this 'Devil on Wheels'. The magistrate at the Gorbals Public Bar was sufficiently impressed to ask Macmillan for a figure-of-eight demonstration in the courtyard, and is said to have slipped him the money for the fine.

Having raced the stage coach on his return to Dumfriesshire, Macmillan went back to the quiet life, but his invention was copied and an English firm put it on sale at seven pounds. Macmillan's early machine, still seen in reproduction at the Transport museum in Glasgow's Kelvin Hall, met demand for easier travel. It had wooden wheels and iron-band tyres, and was so heavy (57lbs) that he pushed off by striking the ground with his feet, protected by iron-spiked boots.

Besides inventing the self-propelled bicycle, Scots also invented the raincoat (Charles Macintosh of Glasgow), the modern road (John Macadam of Ayr), tyres (John Boyd Dunlop of Dreghorn), adhesive stamps (John Chalmers of Dundee), the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell born in Edinburgh).

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