The miniature tricycle of Michel Blin, craftsman from Vierville

In its "History and Little History" section, a local magazine pays tribute to the ingenuity of Michel Blin, a farrier born in Vierville-sur-Mer in 1848. While he was doing his military service, the war of 1870 broke out. Prisoner of the Prussians, he was sent to Breslau, Silesia. To soften his internment conditions, he made instruments and scale models, some of which were sold on site.

On his return, he brought back a miniature wooden tricycle, dated 1871 in the article and preserved at the Baron-Gérard Museum in Bayeux. The photograph is provided by this museum. The magazine highlights the innovative nature of the object by comparing it to what it presents, with caution, as a first tricycle identified in 1880, single-seater and with large rear wheels. This comparison belongs to the article and does not constitute here a verified history of the invention of the tricycle.

The description cited gives a length of thirty-two centimeters and a height of twenty centimeters at the handlebar level. The rear wheels have a diameter of 138 millimeters; the front wheel, larger, measures 154 millimeters. Two seats are arranged in tandem: a bicycle saddle at the front and, at the back, a gallery seat presented as being able to accommodate a woman. The device also provides for manual propulsion by means of two joysticks, with a steering handlebar placed between them, to move without a male companion, according to the period formulation included in the magazine.

Reconstructed or uncertain passages:
- The date of the magazine is not visible. "1911" in the file name does not date the writing of this contemporary article.
- The precedence of the model compared to an alleged first 1880 tricycle is advanced by the article without a detailed technical source; it is not validated here.

Archive image: https://vierville.cordelle.eu/Photos2008/1911-BlinTricycle.jpg