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Origin of the name DRAISINA

I chose the name "Draisina" because it is the "mother" of the bike!

Karl Friedrich Christian Ludwig Freiherr Drais von Sauerbronn in breve Karl Drais.

In December 1813 in Karlsruhe he presented to Tsar Alexander I, who was travelling to the Congress of Vienna, the first of these two machines, equipped with four wheels and called Fahrmaschine ("travelling machine"). The Tsar was enthusiastic about it and even gave him a diamond ring, but the machine was not a success.[1] The second machine, which he called Laufmaschine ("running machine"), was instead equipped with two wooden wheels with eight spokes each and a movable handlebar for direction and moved forward thanks to the push of the feet on the ground.[1] This was the vehicle later known as the draisine, a primitive version of a bicycle without pedals.

The first recorded journey took place on 12 July 1817 from Mannheim to Schwetzingen (now a suburb of Mannheim) and back, a distance of 28 kilometres, covered by Drais himself on his Laufmaschine.[1] In the same year he made a second journey from Gernsbach to Baden-Baden and another from Karlsruhe to Kehl, a distance of 78 kilometres.[1] On 12 January 1818, the Grand Duke of Baden, Charles II, awarded Drais the Großherzogliches Privileg, similar to the patent of today,[1] for the invention of the Laufmaschine (at that time there was no specific legislation on the matter in Baden). Charles II also awarded Drais the title of Professor of Mechanics – this was simply an honorary title, which had nothing to do with the university or other institutions.

France also granted the Baron a patent on February 17, 1818, for what was called for the first time in French vélocipède or, from the name of the inventor, draisienne. On April 5, 1818, the new vehicle was demonstrated in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.[1] The Journal de Paris announced a paid show, a velocipede race to be held on a course of three hundred fathoms, equal to 585 meters.[1] Tickets cost one and a half francs for men, one franc for women, and half a franc for children: 3,000 spectators attended the event and 3,600 francs were collected. The event aroused curiosity, but did not inspire enthusiasm; nevertheless, the use of the draisine began to spread.[1]

In the same year, Prussia, Bavaria and, on December 22, England also granted Drais a patent (here the draisine was called a hobby horse, that is, "amusement horse"); in 1819, Belgium and the United States also did so. However, the application was initially rejected in Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire, and in Frankfurt, the capital of the German Confederation.[1] The machine would, however, undergo further modifications in the following decades, until the introduction of the pedal, attributed to Pierre Michaux, and the birth of the modern bicycle.

During the same period, Drais retired from civil service, but continued to receive his salary as a pension. From 1822 to 1825, he participated in a German expedition to Brazil, organized by Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff. Drais was a staunch democrat and in 1849 renounced his noble title and the von part of his surname. After the failure of the bourgeois revolution of 1848-1849, royalists attempted to have him declared insane and interned. His pension was confiscated, and Drais died in poverty in 1851.