Polkupyörien rekisteröinti Hämeenlinnan kaupungissa vuosina 1904-1928

Authors

• Mikko Kylliäinen

Abstract

The social structure of bicycle users in a Finnish small town from 1904 to 1928

In Finland, some cities and towns required that all bicycles should be registered. The oldest of the registers were started in the 1890s, and in some places they were kept still in the 1950s. There was no common practice in the registration, but the towns decided about the registration by themselves. Usually the following information was included in the registers: name of the bicycle user, his or her profession and address, and often the make of the bicycle and frame number. On the basis of this information, it is possible to study how the diffusion of the bicycle progressed and who where the people who owned or used a bicycle. The aim of the article is to study the social structure of bicycle users in the Finnish small town Hämeenlinna located in the southern Finland, 100 kilometres north from Helsinki. The police office in Hämeenlinna registered the bicycle users between the years 1904 and 1928. The article answers the following questions: how many bicycles were registered per year; was bicycle a common vehicle i.e. what was the proportion of the bicycle owners; what was the social status of the bicycle owners?