Beekman's patent hand gear

[ldrcycles]

While searching Trove for info on old road records I came across this article from 1896 referring to a "Beekman's patent hand gear". A quick google search turned up nothing, does anyone here know anything about it?

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/arti ... rchLimits=

[Johnj]

It's actually Beckman's hand gear. Apparently it's one of those periodic attempts to have a hand driven front wheel (like the TA Specialities one) to complement the chain drive rear wheel.

More detail here.

[ldrcycles]

Ah, one of those old chestnuts. I found another article claiming that it held "every record up to 20 miles", but if there was really anything to it we'd all be pedalling with our hands