PSYCHO
John Nevil Maskelyne was an English stage magician and inventor of the pay toilet, along with other Victorian-era devices, and many of his illusions are still performed today. Psycho was his best known contrivance. He conceived it with his fellow inventor John Algernon Clarke as a mechanical puppet designed to play hands of the card games Whist and Nap. The plinth that Psycho sits on is too small for a man or even a child to fit inside. Psycho performed on top of a transparent glass cylinder which further baffled audiences by proving that Psycho was not controlled by wires or human hands.
The exact workings of this mechanism are unclear, though Psycho was probably operated by using bellows to push compressed air through the glass cylinder up into the plinth beneath the puppet. Reciprocal bellows would have moved the internal mechanism controlling Psycho’s hand to select the appropriate playing cards. Hidden backstage would have been the operator, Maskelyne’s stage partner George Cooke, who could see Psycho’s cards from the wings. Another of Psycho’s tricks was to smoke a cigarette through a holder. He could also nod or shake his head to answer questions from Maskelyne or a member of the audience.
Maskelyne debuted the Psycho illusion with Cooke at ‘England’s Home of Mystery’ the Egyptian Hall at Piccadilly in January 1875. Hugely popular with audiences, Psycho created a considerable buzz in the media as commentators debated how the illusion worked. Psycho appeared in over 4000 performances at the Egyptian Hall before going into retirement. He made a final appearance at St George’s Hall, Langham Place, in 1910. He was donated to the London Museum by the Maskelyne family in 1934.
– The London Museum
1889/1890 Psycho Combination Safety
Starley Bros, St Johns Works, Coventry
18″ Frame
30″ Wheels with solid tyres
I bought this rare machine from the Farren Collection in Australia. Paul Farren had obtained it in the 1970s from Tim Palmer’s museum in Tasmania. I assume it had been exported to Australia in the early 1890s when it was normal practice for British companies to sell their out-of-date models at cheap prices abroad. You can read more about the model further down the page. It’s in excellent original condition and ready to ride.
THE PSYCHO
Starley Bros, St Johns Works, Coventry
James Starley left Coventry Machinists’ Co on 27 January, 1871, to form his own company, Starley Bros with his sons James, John and William. James Starley senior died in 1881, and his son William – known as Big Bill – soon became the driving force behind the company. It subsequently became Coventry’s largest cycle firm, and they claimed to have first exhibited a diamond frame safety at the Stanley Show in February 1886, though the top tube was a bracing strut rather than a fixed tube.
Dan Albone is credited with inventing the first ladies’ bicycle in 1887, and the first Starley Bros ladies bicycle was introduced the following year, as The Psycho (above). It’s believed that the name Psycho was “inspired by an automaton of that name demonstrated by Maskelyne at The Egyptian Hall, a figure which, among other feats, could play a hand of whist.” (see top of the page).
The Psycho had a removable top tube to make it suitable for a gentleman to ride, and to provide added strength to what was essentially a weak design. Over the next few years, the other leading companies brought out their own ladies’ bicycles using a similar design. From 1889 onwards, a small curved brace was added above the bottom bracket to strengthen the single tube when the machines were used as a ladies’ bicycle without the top tube. I’ve not yet found an illustration of the Psycho with this additional brace. If you compare the illustrations above and below you can see that the other difference between the 1888 model and the 1889 (or later) model is the wheelbase. The first model was shorter, similar to the first crossframe safeties, while subsequent models reflected the size of the gentlemen’s machines that were by now appearing.
The Psycho became the top selling machine of this style because it was taken up by American companies who had not yet started building their own bicycles and so depended on importing English machines. Typically, it was older models that the English manufacturers sold for export, as at home the market was changing so rapidly (because of constant innovation) that the leading companies had to bring out new catalogues two or three times a year to include their new designs.
The style of bicycle with a removable top tube was known as a Convertible in Britain and a Combination in the US. I’m not sure if the example featured here should be called a Convertible or a Combination, as it was found in Australia, which was another important export market for Starley & Co
THE PSYCHO ADVERTISED IN IN AMERICA
1892 BIDWELL CATALOGUE EXTRACTS
Bidwell sold the Psycho in the USA as the ‘Ladies Psycho’ without the removable top tube and the ‘Ladies Student’ as the Combination version. They no longer had open steering, suggesting they were still being supplied by Starley Bros rather than built by Bidwell.
1892-1895 SINGLE TUBE LADIES MODEL
