RMCC presentation 3; High Wheel comes to North America

 High Wheel comes to North America

        Many mechanical elements such as the chain drive, pneumatic tires, ball bearings were first used on a bicycle.  Surprisingly however the wire spoke wheel was not first invented for bicycles but  rather for use on gliders in 1808, just one year after the founding of the RMCC!


      It was not until the late 1860’s that Eugene Meyer of Paris was the first to adapt wire spoke wheels for use on a bicycle.  These wheels were lighter and stronger and could be built much bigger than the previous wagon wheels used before. The Penny Farthing, or High Wheel bicycle as it was called at the time, with it’s large front wheel and a seat almost 6 feet above the ground was born. The large front wheel made the machine much faster, as the distance traveled with each turn of the pedal was greater.

        High wheel bicycles were invented in France, just before the Franco Prussian War, but England was the center of the industrial revolution and much of the Penny Farthing’s later development occurred there.  James Starley of Coventry, after seeing one of Meyer’s machines, made many incremental improvements to the same basic design. He is now regarded as the father of the British cycling industry. In 1871 Starley rode one of his Ariel style bicycles 100 miles from London to Coventry.  He started at sunrise, and arrived at midnight.  This was the first practical human powered machine that was capable of long distance travel that was faster than walking.


        Now picture the sensation this man created, riding high above the ground, on primitive road surfaces and at high speed.

To Quote Karl Kron, a bicycle writer of the time

“All creatures who have ever walked have wished that they might fly. With high wheelers a flesh and blood man can hitch wings to his feet.”

        However, the High Wheel bicycle did not become widely known in North America until 7 years after Starley’s ride to Coventry. Bicycle manufacturers from England  exhibited the  High Wheel at  the Centennial world fair in Philadelphia. Over 10 million people attended that fair which also featured such new products as Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, the Remington typewriter, and Heinz ketchup.

Colonel Albert Augustus Pope, an American civil war veteran saw some of the English High Wheel bicycles at the exhibit, realized their potential, and also began importing them. Later he founded the Columbia bicycle company, becoming America’s most successful bicycle manufacturer.


        The high wheel bicycle became a sensation and inspired a wave of bicycle clubs.  Boston started the first club in North America, Feb 1878, followed by another in Bangor Maine. These first two clubs were both founded by patent lawyer Charles E. Pratt.

        Pratt, the patent lawyer and Pope, the civil war veteran turned bicycle manufacturer met in Boston and joined forces.  As Pope’s business grew Pratt became an employee and together they promoted cycling in America by founding bicycle clubs, publishing a sporting and travel journal called Outing magazine, and the creation of the League of American Wheelmen. Also known as the LAW.

        The bicycle was a new invention and they were not certain how best to promote it.  Should it be marketed as a new form of transportation for  the masses, or a new  racing sport, or a way to display one’s wealth and knowledge of the latest technology?  Since Pope was a civil war veteran, and bicycles were thought of in terms of being “iron horses” he thought that bicycle clubs should be run similar to the military cavalry.  His partner Pratt disdained racing as elitist and believed the bicycle should be promoted primarily as a means for ordinary people to travel out into the countryside.  Any legal issues regarding this new form of transport was handled by Pratt on behalf of Columbia Cycle,  formulating many of today’s legal concepts regarding road traffic safety.