The History of Penny Farthing

A Legacy on Two Wheels

It Began With A Challenge   

In 1696, Jacques Ozanam of France presented the challenge of human-powered transportation postulating a world “in which one can drive oneself wherever one pleases without horses.”  More than a century later, Karl von Drais from Germany, created the “Draisine,” a “hobby horse,” with two wheels and a steering bar which one straddled and pushed with their legs.  In 1862, some 45 years later after the Drasine, Pierre Lallement of France added a crank and pedals to the front wheel creating the “velocipede” - a bicycle by another name.

Enter the "Ordinary," High-Wheel Bicycle

During this time before rubber inner tubes, chains were expensive, heavy, and unreliable.  So, when European velocipedists (bicycle racers) wanted a faster machine, they increased the diameter of the front wheel.  The years 1870 – 1890 saw many remarkable cycling innovations such as the advent of steel, ball bearings, and the use of factory machining to make better machines at a faster pace.  The heavy wood and iron velocipedes once produced one at a time by black smiths and wheel smiths gave way to the iconic, “lightweight,” tall front wheel, small rear-wheel, production bicycles which continue to marvel spectators to this very day.

These elegant, high-wheel machines were the first to be called "bicycles," and they grew to ridiculous heights; the tallest included a 66-inch diameter front wheel.  As wheel height increased, safety decreased urging inventors to build a variety of bikes with odd - but allegedly safer - designs.  The onslaught of "safety bicycles" led papers to refer to high-wheel models as “ordinary” bicycles. 

Bicycles allowed the fit rider to travel “wherever one pleases;” the most notable example being Thomas Stevens who, from April 1884 to December 1886, circled the Earth on a bicycle.

Nothing Lasts Forever  

A second "Industrial Revolution" came in 1890, which bought us pneumatic tires and lightweight, low-price, reliable chains which allowed for gearing which could replicate the pace of a high-wheel bicycle but at a much safer height.  Alas, mass-produced “safety bikes” with their significantly lower profile, answered the challenge of Ozanam.  Since the mid-1970s, scientists have continually declared bicycles – above birds, fish, race cars, jet planes, and even the cheetah – the most efficient form of transportation on Earth!

Whether we call them "high-wheel," "ordinary," or "penny-farthing" bicycles, their history traces back to a desire for freedom in the form of self-powered transportation.