Historic View of Recumbents

In the 1930s English long distance cyclist, Evelyn Hamilton was in the news. A photo gallery of Evelyn shows her riding recumbents! Here's the promotional item:

"The latest in bicycles, direct from Paris, as shown at the Lightweight Cycle Show at the Royal Horticultural Cycle Hall, London. What is proclaimed to be the "Bicycle of the Future" is an entirely new conception of the bicycle. On this machine the rider sits as in an armchair and presses forward to the pedals thus being able to employ the leverage of the powerful muscles of the back to assist the pedalling thrust. Great speeds are attainable on this machine and one of the similar type but less advanced design, a continental rider has beaten records which the world's best riders had attacked in vain on normal mounts"

Thanks to Marty Walsh for sharing this information. You can see more photos of Evelyn Hamilton at: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/michael.bannon1/evelynhamilton/