Penny-farthing (high-wheel bicycle)
Biciclo (bicicleta de rueda alta, penny-farthing)
- Date
- 1869 · confidence low
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Eugène Meyer (individually tensioned wire-spoke wheel), building on earlier work by Louis Rives and later popularised by James Starley
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Meyer patented in 1869 the individually tensioned wire-spoke wheel, much lighter than earlier wooden wheels, which allowed the front wheel to be enlarged for more speed per pedal stroke: thus the high-wheel 'penny-farthing', with a small rear wheel, was born. James Starley popularised it in England with his 'Ariel' model (1871).
There is no single inventor: Louis Rives had already patented a velocipede with a similar profile to the penny-farthing in 1868, and James Moore raced big-wheel machines in 1869-1870. Wikidata gives Eugène Meyer a birth year of 1801, which does not fit the chronology (he patented in 1869 and was active into the 1880s): likely an entity-linking error with a different person of the same name.
What it led to
- The popularisation of the high-wheel bicycle across Europe (1870s-1880s)
- The chain-driven safety bicycle, which replaced it (1880s)
Built on
- The pedal velocipede (Michaux, 1860s)
Made possible
- Safety bicycle