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Penny Farthing or High Wheel Bicycle1869 - 1885 Before the development of a gear system to multiply the revolutions of bicycle pedals, these were linked directly to the wheel.
One man in Paris found the solution to make larger front wheels for speed without adding too much weight: Eugene Meyer, who is now regarded as the father of the High Bicycle by the ICHC in place of James Starley. Meyer invented the wire-spoke tension wheel in 1869 and built a beautiful High Wheel Bicycle with it until the 1880s. James Starley in Coventry added the tangent spokes and the mounting step to his famous bicycle named "Ariel." He is rightly regarded as the father of the British cycling industry, then leading the world, with Coventry, Birmingham and Manchester being the centers. Ball bearings, solid tires and hollow frames became standard. The position of the rider was moved so he was sitting directly above the wheel, so it could be enlarged to its maximum limit, given by the length of the rider's legs. Depending on the rider's leg length, the front wheel could now have a diameter up to 60 in (1.5 m). These 'Ordinary Bicyles' or 'Ordinaries' were nicknamed "Penny Farthings" in England (a penny representing the front wheel, and a much smaller coin, the farthing, representing the rear wheel). They were fast, but unsafe. The rider's feet could not reach the ground while riding, and the penny-farthing was notorious for causing accidents. The rider was way up in the air and traveling at a great speed. If he hit a bad spot in the road he could easily be thrown over the front wheel and be seriously injured or even killed. "Taking a header," which was not at all uncommon, was no laughing matter. The dangerous nature of these bicycles meant that cycling was the preserve of adventurous young men. The American "Star" bicycle was an Ordinary turned-around to prevent those headers, but now there was the danger of being thrown backwards when riding uphill. Elderly gentlemen and women preferred the more stable tricycles or quadricycles, e.g. Queen Victoria rode Starley's "Royal Salvo," a true highlight of the gunsmiths' art. In the United States it was Bostonian Alexander Pope who monopolized Ordinaries from 1876 and initiated the good-roads movement.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bicycle" and from http://www.treadly.com
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