Vintage exercise bike, Mansion House, Newcastle

The Mansion House is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne, having been bequeathed to the City by Sir Arthur Munro Sutherland. Sir Arthur (1867-1953) was a local shipowner and philanthropist who was actually Lord Mayor himself from 1918-19.

The House is available for function hire nowadays, and we visited it today as a potential venue for post-wedding celebration for our eldest son who is getting married in the USA in May next year.

Obviously this was a good chance to take today's blip as it is a super old house, and I took several photos around the place. However my favourite artefact was Sir Arthur's exercise bike. Seemingly it may have been the first such bike to be patented. The City has done a grand job of keeping the House almost exactly as it was when Sir Arthur lived there, and his exercise bike still has pride of place in his personal bathroom. It must have done him good as he lived to the grand old age of 86!

If you view the photo "large" you'll see that the disc in front of the bike is calibrated at 440 yards - I am not sure how this worked, nor do I know why there is a bell-like object on a bracket next to it. I wonder if maybe the pointer moved round and hit against the bell after a specified "distance". Anyone know?

I wouldn't like to try the bike now as the saddle does not seem to have weathered the ravages of time very well!