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Sylvia Rose

19th Century: Home Gym, Bicycles, Antiseptic

Updated: Oct 10

The home gym, antiseptic, bicycles and Bunsen burners all emerge in the 19th century. European engineers, scientists, physicians and inventors are at the top of their game in the 1800's with new standards of hygiene, mental health and physical fitness.


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In the Victorian era cycles of industrial progress create reactions such as environmentalism, return to nature and natural health. Here are a few breakthrough inventions and innovations of the 19th century we still love today.


1. The World’s First Home Gym


A health and fitness craze sweeps Europe at the end of the 19th century. Designed by Swedish physician and orthopedist Dr. Gustav Zander, the home gym comes to the public eye in an array of shapes and sizes, along with a handbook of exercises.



A Victorian man uses a fitness machine or home gym to get in shape
Exercise machines and home gyms redefined personal fitness

Dr. Zander is one of the originators of mechanotherapy, a therapeutic method of exercise, defined in 1890 as “the employment of mechanical means for the cure of disease”. He designs a series of mechanical contraptions designed to shape up the Victorian body, for men, women and kids.


It's not long before competitors join the home exercise craze. Imitations and variations appear throughout Europe. Zander remains in the public eye as the handbook of exercises he publishes is adopted by the public as a widespread guide for physical fitness.


2. Antiseptic



Antiseptic was first used in hospitals toward the end of the 19th century, and the survival rate for post-surgery patients soared.
Legacy of Lister

The use of antiseptic in hospitals isn't widespread until Joseph Lister, a British surgeon, publishes his ground-breaking paper Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery in 1867. Until then, hospitals are houses of horror, where people go to die.


Before antiseptic, post-surgical treatment includes neither cleanliness nor draining and treatment of the wound. Surgeons wear unwashed aprons caked with blood and tissue. A few voices pre-empt the work of Joseph Lister, like those of Florence Nightingale and Hippocrates.


There are several classes of antiseptics including iodine, alcohols, phenols (introduced by Lister) and peroxides. With the introduction of antiseptic in hospitals, the post-surgery recovery rate soars.


3. The Bunsen Burner


No science laboratory is complete without a Bunsen burner. Named after German inventor and chemist Robert Bunsen, it's a gas burner with a single open gas flame. Uses include heating, sterilization, and combustion.



Bunsen Burner invented by chemist Robert Bunsen in the 19th century
Flames of a Bunsen Burner

Different flame types of Bunsen burner depending on air flow through the valve.


  1. air valve closed

  2. air valve nearly fully closed

  3. air valve semi-opened

  4. air valve maximally opened


In 1852, the University of Heidelberg hires Bunsen with the promise of a new laboratory building. Heidelberg is starting to install coal-gas street lights. The University lays gas lines to the new laboratory.


Bunsen wants to improve the lab burner lamps and adapt them to coal-gas fuel. In 1854, collaboration with the University mechanic produces the first burners and the next year, fifty are created for use by Bunsen's students. The flame burns brightly and users can adjust the temperature; and so the Bunsen burner is now a classic.


4. The World's First Bicycle


The bicycle is one of the most beloved forms of self-transportation. The nineteenth century hosted a transportation and bicycle revolution. Bicycles go from wobbly novelties to a means of personal empowerment.



The first bicycle, a wood frame with two wheels steered by hand and pushed by the feet, gained popularity in the early 19th century. It was invented by German Baron Karl von Drais, who is known as the father of the bicycle.
Draisienne or Laufmaschine 1820 - pic G.P. Ma

The Draisienne (dandy horse) or Laufmaschine (running machine), is introduced by German inventor Baron Karl von Drais. Considered the first bicycle although it has no pedals, it makes a name for von Drais as father of the bicycle.


It's unveiled in Mannheim, Germany in 1817 and Paris, France in 1818. The rider sits astride a wooden frame supported by two wheels, and pushes the vehicle with feet while steering the front wheel.


Credit for the treadle bicycle, the first mechanically propelled, two-wheeled vehicle may go to Kirkpatrick MacMillan, a Scottish blacksmith, in 1839. It's often challenged. He's more notorious for the first recorded instance of a cycling traffic offense, when he knocks over a little girl with his bike, and is fined five shillings.



A stable and speedy high wheel bike or big wheel bicycle
High wheelers can reach 22 mph (35 k) top speed

After treadle bikes, in the latter half of the 19th century come eye-catching high-wheelers or big wheel bikes. In Britain the high wheeler is called Penny Farthing due to size of the wheels in perspective. Able to reach speeds up to 22 miles (35 km) the bike also gives a smooth ride.


Replacing the high wheeler in the 1880's is the "safety bicycle" first successfully launched in 1885. It has a steerable front wheel, equally sized wheels and a chain drive to the rear wheel. Widely imitated, the safety bicycle completely replaces the high-wheeler in North America and Western Europe by 1890, and becomes the prototype for today's modern bikes.


The bicycle gives people more freedom than ever before and inspires trends. Lines of fashion come out for women, such as bloomer-style or split skirts, and safety devices like back wheel webbing to prevent voluminous clothing from catching. Women are independently mobile.



Two wheeled cycle with bike chain and even sized wheels, called the 'safety bicycle', took over from the high wheeler by 1890
The 'Safety Bicycle' 1885 - pic Ian Wilkes

Bicycles are fast, convenient and easy to ride. On a straight road in the Victorian era a bicycle could travel approximately 15 mph (24 km/h), compared to the average trotting speed of a horse at 8 mph (12.8 km/h) and a modern motor vehicle at 12 mph (19 km/h).


With widespread appeal, bicycles cross barriers of class and gender. Poor or rich, male or female, young or old, people all have access to bicycles, and dramatic changes happen as those from all walks of life enjoy freedom, independence and adventure.



Non-Fiction Books:


Fiction Books:

READ: Lora Ley Adventures - Germanic Mythology Fiction Series

READ: Reiker For Hire - Victorian Detective Murder Mysteries




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