On 8 May, 12:49, Paul George wrote:
8.30pm Thoroughly Modern: The Bicycle

4/4. Showing as part of the Birth of Now season. Major improvements
were made by the Edwardians to bicycles, and it has even been
suggested that the gene pool was enlarged by their popularity.

I've heard the gene pool improvement theory before. It goes like
this:- Before the invention of the bicycle there was no cheap reliable
transport for the masses to use, so many a young man was restricted to
the number of young ladies that he could court, which lead to a large
number of first-cousin marriages, hence the effect of poor genes
became concentrated. When young men could get out and about on
bicycles, they went further afield to court, thus preventing the need
to marry their cousins, and so improving the condition of the
population in general.

David Lloyd