The chapter "Some Examples of Useless Contriving" is pretty neat:
> In 1893 a Hartford man patented a bicycle fitted with a large cylinder, borne on either side below the
wheel centre, for compressed air. Having previously filled these, either by a foot pump, which takes the
place of the usual pedals, or by a curious rotary hand pump carried under the upper tube, the rider
climbed to his place, opened a convenient throttle valve and sped along gayly. On a down grade he could
use the momentum to repump air, getting brake effect by so doing, or he could use the air pressure to work
a brake direct; as the gas tanks carried two little wheels on spiral springs underneath them, the rider could
step off and leave the whole construction upright, leaning down on one of these stop-wheels.
> Mr. Hansel, of Zeitz, in Germany, only recently rediscovered and patented the idea of driving by the
rider’s weight. There are two saddles, each on its post, arranged to slide up and down see-saw fashion,
and geared, no matter precisely how, to a very big pulley belted to a very small one on the rear wheel, the
gear ratio being evidently enormous. The rider gets up on the seat which is at the top, slides down with it,
thus starting the wheel; then he is to hop off that to the other seat (which has meanwhile gone up) and so
on. Expressive silence may be left to “muse the praise” of this invention
> In 1893 a Hartford man patented a bicycle fitted with a large cylinder, borne on either side below the wheel centre, for compressed air. Having previously filled these, either by a foot pump, which takes the place of the usual pedals, or by a curious rotary hand pump carried under the upper tube, the rider climbed to his place, opened a convenient throttle valve and sped along gayly. On a down grade he could use the momentum to repump air, getting brake effect by so doing, or he could use the air pressure to work a brake direct; as the gas tanks carried two little wheels on spiral springs underneath them, the rider could step off and leave the whole construction upright, leaning down on one of these stop-wheels.
> Mr. Hansel, of Zeitz, in Germany, only recently rediscovered and patented the idea of driving by the rider’s weight. There are two saddles, each on its post, arranged to slide up and down see-saw fashion, and geared, no matter precisely how, to a very big pulley belted to a very small one on the rear wheel, the gear ratio being evidently enormous. The rider gets up on the seat which is at the top, slides down with it, thus starting the wheel; then he is to hop off that to the other seat (which has meanwhile gone up) and so on. Expressive silence may be left to “muse the praise” of this invention