Denis Johnson (inventor)

Denis Johnson (c. 1760 – 25 December 1833) was an English coachmaker who worked on Long Acre, London, England.

Nevertheless, by the summer of the same year the craze was dying out, and a health warning against the continued use of the velocipede was issued by the London Surgeons.

In Johnson's machine, like that of von Drais, propulsion was simply by ‘swift walking’, with the rider striking his (or her) feet on the ground alternately.

However, it led directly (albeit after a long delay) to the invention of the bicycle in the 1860s, when rotary cranks and pedals were attached to the front-wheel hub of a machine based on Johnson's.

A memorial plaque at 69–75 Long Acre, Covent Garden, the former site of his workshop, was unveiled on 2 July 1998 by Tony Banks MP, Minister for Sport.