Ordinary Bicycle, 1880

The ordinary bicycle, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or penny-farthing, has a large front wheel and a much smaller rear wheel. It was the first machine to be called a bicycle.

In 1869, Frenchman Eugène Meyer designed and fashioned the wire-spoke tension wheel. Around 1870, English inventor James Starley, called the father of the bicycle industry, and others, began producing bicycles based on Meyer’s model. In 1878, Albert Pope began manufacturing the Columbia bicycle outside of Boston, starting their two-decade heyday in America.

Although the trend was short-lived, the ordinary bicycle became a symbol of the late Victorian era. Its popularity also coincided with the birth of cycling as a sport.