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Ep. 12
On 12 June 1817, German forest official Karl von Drais rode his Laufmaschine roughly 14 kilometres in under an hour, solving a transport crisis caused by the volcanic winter following Mount Tambora’s eruption. His wooden two-wheeler had no pedals, no chain, no gears. Just a frame, two wheels, and human determination. It became the dandy horse, a fashionable craze that faded but eventually evolved into the modern bicycle, one of history’s most democratising inventions. Exactly 162 years later, on 12 June 1979, cyclist Bryan Allen pedalled the Gossamer Albatross across the English Channel, covering 35 kilometres in two hours and 49 minutes. His human-powered aircraft, made of aluminium tubes and Mylar film, weighed just 32 kilograms and won the second Kremer Prize. Both stories share a common thread: human ingenuity applied to legs, wheels, and the belief that you can get somewhere nobody expects. Clara Vale explores two moments when moving forward meant making it up as you went along.