When was the shaft drive bicycle invented?

looney_tunes

"The shaft-driven bicycle was originally developed in the late 1800s. The French company L'Acatane did most of the development in the 1890s. During this period, Columbia aggressively marketed the chainless bicycle in the USA. Chainless bicycles were moderately popular in 1898 and 1899, although sales were still much smaller than regular bicycles, primarily due to the high cost. The bikes were also somewhat less efficient than regular bicycles — there was roughly an 8 percent loss in the gearing, in part due to limited manufacturing technology at the time. The rear wheel was also more difficult to remove to change flats. Many of these deficiencies have been overcome in the past century. In 1902, The Hill-Climber Bicycle Mfg. Company sold a three-speed shaft-driven bicycle in which the shifting was implemented with three sets of bevel gears. While a small number of chainless bicycles were available, for the most part, shaft-driven bicycles disappeared from view for most of the 20th century." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaft-driven_bicycle Dec 29 09, 8:33 PM