This was the second in a series of four articles by E. Buony. It described Paul de Vivie’s ‘quick link’ that allowed the rider to rapidly break the chain, move it to a different chainwheel/sprocket pair and speedily rejoin it.

Like oval chainwheels, ‘quick links’ have been repeatedly ‘invented’ and then forgotten throughout cycling history.

The article appears to describe a world in which there were only two manufacturers of bikes with variable gearing - Paul de Vivie in St-Étienne and a Monsieur Lavignasse in Dax.

(Source gallica.bnf.fr/ Bibliothèque nationale de France)

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• Publisher: T.C.F. Revue Mensuelle
• Country: France
• Date: January 1898
• Derailleur brands: de Vivie
• Derailleurs: none