October 30, 1906
Daniel Albone, an inventor who made key contributions to various types of transportation, died in the market town and civil parish of Biggleswade in southern England. He was 46.
Albone was born in Biggleswade on September 12, 1860. He and his family lived in an area located between the Great North Road and the River Ivel. Albone’s strong interest in cycling can be traced to his ninth birthday, when he was given a bicycle as a present. By the time he was 13, Albone had designed and built his own bicycle and was proving to be a formidable competitor in local cycling races. By the late 1880s, he had won more than 180 cycling prizes far and wide. It was during this decade that Albone also became a founding member of the North Road Cycling Club.
Albone also established Ivel Cycle Works. The products that he made for himself and his fellow cycling enthusiasts via this enterprise included the Ivel Roadster, Ivel Racer, and Ivel Tricycle. One of Albone’s biggest claims to fame, however, was his introduction of the Ivel Safety Bicycle in 1885. At around this time, safety bicycles were steadily growing in popularity as an alternative to the bicycle known as the penny-farthing or high wheeler. The safety bicycle has since become the most common type of bicycle worldwide.
Albone’s own version of this bicycle gained further fame during the fall of 1886. This is when George Pilkington Mills – the preeminent English racing cyclist of his generation – used an Ivel Safety Bicycle to achieve a record-setting ride of 294.5 miles (474 kilometers) in a 24-hour timeframe.
In collaboration with his fellow North Road Cycling Club charter member Arthur James Wilson, Albone developed a tandem safety bicycle. Albone’s other creations included a child’s chair to be used as a carrier accessory for the bicycles that he manufactured.
As a result of a major economic downturn in England in 1893, Albone ended up shutting down operations at Ivel Cycle Works and putting the firm into voluntary liquidation. He subsequently pursued the design and production of motor vehicles instead. One of the automobiles that Albone built was the five-seat Ivel Landaulette. He also developed the Ivel Motor Bicycle.
After founding Ivel Agricultural Motors Limited in 1902, Albone came up with yet another notable means of mobility. He built the Ivel Agricultural Motor, which had the distinction of being the world’s first commercially successful lightweight gas-powered, multi-purpose tractor.
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on Daniel Albone, please check out https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Daniel_Albone
Transportation History 
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