---
title: "Which came first, the bicycle or the fax machine?"
description: "the bicycle vs the fax machine: the bicycle came first, by 26 years — 1817 against 1843. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/bicycle-vs-fax-machine/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the bicycle or the fax machine?

**Which came first, the bicycle or the fax machine?: the bicycle**

1817 — 26 years before the fax machine

the bicycle came first, by 26 years. Karl Drais rode his running machine near Mannheim.

## Side by side

|  | the bicycle | the fax machine |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1817 | 1843 |
| Date | 1817-06-12 | — |
| Category | invention | invention |
| What happened | Karl Drais rode his running machine near Mannheim. | Alexander Bain patented an electric printing telegraph that sent images. |

## the bicycle

The first two-wheeler you could balance and steer was Drais's laufmaschine of 1817, which had no pedals — you pushed with your feet. Pedals arrived in the 1860s, the chain-driven safety bicycle with equal wheels in 1885, and the pneumatic tyre in 1888. The bicycle is younger than the steam locomotive, younger than photography's first experiments, and roughly contemporary with the stethoscope.

## the fax machine

Bain's 1843 patent covered a device that scanned a raised metal image with a stylus and reproduced it at the far end of a wire — a fax machine in principle. Giovanni Caselli ran a commercial pantelegraph service between Paris and Lyon from 1865, sending signatures and handwriting eleven years before Bell patented the telephone. The fax is not merely older than the telephone; it is older than the American Civil War.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the bicycle or the fax machine?

the bicycle, by 26 years — 1817 against 1843.

### When did the bicycle start?

1817. Karl Drais rode his running machine near Mannheim.

### When did the fax machine start?

1843. Alexander Bain patented an electric printing telegraph that sent images.

## Related pages

- [Big Ben or the fax machine?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/big-ben-vs-fax-machine/)
- [the bicycle or photography?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/bicycle-vs-photograph/)
- [the bicycle or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/bicycle-vs-telephone/)
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- [the fax machine or photography?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-photograph/)
- [the fax machine or the telephone?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-telephone/)
- [the fax machine or the lightbulb?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-lightbulb/)
- [the fax machine or television?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/fax-machine-vs-television/)
- [the car or the fax machine?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/car-vs-fax-machine/)
- [the aeroplane or the bicycle?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/aeroplane-vs-bicycle/)

## Sources

- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History — Smithsonian Institution (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/)