200 years ago, Mount Tambora exploded and changed the world. The cloud of ash and sulfur dioxide caused the Year Without Summer in 1816, a year so cold that crops failed around the world, causing massive famine. Horses were slaughtered as there was no food for them, let alone the people. According to our commenter Richard,
Baron von Drais later just Karl Drais, was a fervent democrat and revolutionary and was on the wrong side of the mid-century revolutions sweeping Europe, so he did not get much credit for his invention. However a new study by historian Hans-Erhard Lessing is quoted in The New Scientist:
The Laufsmaschine was nicknamed the Dandy-horse and hobby-horse, and a French version was called the velocipede. They became quite popular, which led to a familiar problem:
Drais also invented the first typewriter with a keyboard and a better wood stove. However after the revolution the Royalists tried to declare him mad and lock him up. They stripped him of his pension (awarded for his inventions) and he died penniless in 1851. But he is now credited again with the invention of the precursor to the bike, a direct response to the Year without Summer and the eruption of Mount Tambora.
