Penny-farthing

The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or ordinary, is an early type of bicycle distinguished by its large front wheel and comparatively small back wheel. It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large front wheel providing high speeds, owing to its travelling a long distance for every rotation of the wheel. These bicycles had solid rubber tires and as a consequence the only shock absorption was in the saddle.

The penny-farthing became obsolete in the late 1880s with the development of modern bicycles, which provided similar speed, via a chain-drivengear train, and comfort, from the use of pneumatic tires. These later bikes 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.

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). Although the name "penny-farthing" is now the most common, it was probably not used until the machines had been almost superseded.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. 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, pedalled vehicles. In the late 1890s, the name "ordinary" began to be used, to distinguish them from the emerging safety bicycles, and that term, along with "hi-wheel" and variants, are preferred by many modern enthusiasts.

In 1869, at the height of the popularity of the boneshaker, the Frenchman Eugène Meyer patented a wire-spoke bicycle wheel which led to the development of the high bicycle. The Franco-Prussian war led mass production to switch to Britain, where James Starley, described as the father of the British bicycle industry, and others, made incremental improvements. During the 1870s manufacturers produced bicycles with ever larger front wheels and ever smaller rear wheels, because with direct-drive the larger the front wheel, the further (and so faster) it went. Wheel size was determined by leg length: 60" was the largest standard size. In 1878, Albert Pope began manufacturing the Columbia bicycle outside Boston, starting their two-decade heyday in the United States.

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.