The Forgotten Crisis of 1815

Being a student of history teaches us astounding lessons; global crises almost always followed by great inventions.  

Over two centuries ago, in April of 1815, the eruption of Mount Tambora, a volcano in Indonesia, was one of the greatest in human history. It caused the spread of a massive plume of dust around the world. It caused the blockage of the sun and naturally decreasing global temperatures. In America, a dry fog tinted the sun, and there was summer snowfall in New York and Boston. Protests and looting broke out in many European countries as harvests failed. Food prices soared, and hundreds of thousands of people died from famine and disease. In China, the cold weather destroyed trees and crops. Around the world, horses starved or were butchered, as the high price of oats drove many to chose whether to feed their animals or themselves.  

Although the majority of the world was traumatized with this crisis, Karl von Drais, a German inventor, to devise the personal-transport machine to replace the horse: a two-wheeled wooden contraption which he called the Laufmaschine (literally means: running machine). Karl was sitting on a saddle when propelled it by planting his feet on the ground and pushing every few meters while steering using a tiller. It was an exhibition ride, in which he traveled 60 kilometers in almost five hours, showed the world it was as fast as a trotting horse, and could be powered by the rider without much work. The complicated part, of course, was keeping the balance while gliding along, which took some practice, and as we had all learned when we were little.  

Karl's invention didn't replace the horse, of course: the weather returned to normal, leading to a plentiful harvest in 1817. But, fans continued to improve on Karl's original design. The crucial addition of pedals happened in France in the 1860s. Other refinements included better breaks, a steel frame, metal wheels, and a chain to drive them. By the late 1880s, these parts had been combined into a recognizable design: the bicycle.  

An invention inspired by a challenge and exciting times of a long-forgotten global crisis, therefore, ended up spreading around the globe and becoming part of our everyday lives. 

Now, as we are dealing with COVID-19 crisis, what innovations might the coronavirus outbreak of 2020 reveal?

The pandemic will undoubtedly inspire new approaches to online learning or package delivery by drones and undoubtedly some less obvious ideas.  ​

Who would have imagined, after all, that a volcano would give birth to what we call "the bicycle"?