Penny-farthing

The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or ordinary, is an early type of bicycle.^[1] It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large front wheel providing high speeds, owing to it travelling a large distance for every rotation of the legs, and comfort, because the large wheel provided greater shock absorption.

It became obsolete in the late 1880s with the development of modern bicycles, which provided similar speed, via a chain-driven gear train, and comfort, from the use of pneumatic tires. They were marketed as "safety bicycles" because of the greater ease of mounting and dismounting, the reduced danger of falling, and the reduced height to fall, in comparison to penny-farthings.^[2][3]

The name came from the British penny and farthing coins, the penny being much larger than the farthing, so that the side view of the bicycle resembles a larger penny (the front wheel) leading a smaller farthing (the rear wheel).^[4] Although the name "penny-farthing" is now the most common, it was probably not used until the machines had been almost superseded. The first recorded print reference is from 1891 in Bicycling News.^[5] For most of their reign, they were simply known as "bicycles", and were the first machines to be so called, although they were not the first two-wheeled, pedaled vehicles.^[6] In the late 1890s, the name "ordinary" began to be used, to distinguish them from the emerging safety bicycles,^[7] and that term, along with "hi-wheel" and variants, are preferred by many modern enthusiasts.^[8][9]

Following the popularity of the boneshaker, Eugène Meyer, a Frenchman, invented the high-wheeler bicycle design in 1869 and fashioned the wire-spoke tension wheel.^[10] Around 1870 English inventor James Starley, described as the father of the bicycle industry, and others, began producing bicycles based on the French boneshaker but with front wheels of increasing size,^[4] because larger front wheels, up to 5 feet (152 cm) in diameter, enabled higher speeds on bicycles limited to direct-drive.^{[3][4][11][12][13]} In 1878, Albert Pope began manufacturing the Columbia bicycle outside Boston, starting their two-decade heyday in the United States.^[4]

Although the trend was short-lived, the penny-farthing became a symbol of the late Victorian era. Its popularity also coincided with the birth of cycling as a sport.^[4]