Description
c1880's Penny Farthing Bicycle Humidor or Biscuit jar lid. This is the real<br>deal, extremely rare and desirable. It came to me on a turn of the century clear<br>pressed glass jar shown in the last pic. I'll throw in the jar unless you<br>request otherwise. That Jar has a 3.75" outer diameter for the lip, the lid is a<br>little loose but does catch where it should. So maybe it's the right lid/base.<br>This is an important lid and it should be on an important jar, jar is old with<br>no damage, but not important by any means. Seems like the lis could have went<br>inside a jar as it has a lip. If so it would goi inside about a 4 1/8" opening<br>on the jar, I think 4.25" would be too big. So it can go outside a 3.75"<br>possibly 3 7/8" jar. Total height with jar 9 5/8", lid 4 5/8". No damage to jar<br>or lid, some brass showing through the silver plating on the bicycle. The right<br>pedal turns. B17<br><br><br>Penny-farthing<br><br>The penny-farthing, also known as a high wheel, high wheeler or ordinary, is an<br>early type of bicycle. [1] It was popular in the 1870s and 1880s, with its large<br>front wheel providing high speeds (owing to its travelling a large distance for<br>every rotation of the legs) and comfort (the large wheel provides greater shock<br>absorption).<br><br>It became obsolete in the late 1880s with the development of modern bicycles,<br>which provided similar speed amplification via chain-driven gear trains and<br>comfort through pneumatic tires, and were marketed in comparison to<br>penny-farthings as "safety bicycles" because of the reduced danger of falling<br>and the reduced height to fall from.<br><br>The name came from the British penny and farthing coins, the penny being much<br>larger than the farthing, so that the side view of the bicycle resembles a<br>larger penny (the front wheel) leading a smaller farthing (the rear wheel).<br>Although the name "penny-farthing" is now the most common, it was probably not<br>used until the machines were nearly outdated; the first recorded print reference<br>is from 1891 in Bicycling News. For most of their reign, they were simply known<br>as "bicycles", and were the first machines to be so called (though they were not<br>the first two-wheeled, pedaled vehicles). In the late 1890s, the name "ordinary"<br>began to be used, to distinguish them from the emerging safety bicycles; this<br>term and "hi-wheel" (and variants) are preferred by many modern enthusiasts.<br><br>Following the popularity of the boneshaker, Eugène Meyer, a Frenchman, invented<br>the high-wheeler bicycle design in 1869 and fashioned the wire-spoke tension<br>wheel. Around 1870 English inventor James Starley, described as the father of<br>the bicycle industry, and others, began producing bicycles based on the French<br>boneshaker but with front wheels of increasing size, because larger front<br>wheels, up to 5 feet (152 cm) in diameter, enabled higher speeds on bicycles<br>limited to direct-drive. In 1878, Albert Pope began manufacturing the Columbia<br>bicycle outside Boston, starting their two-decade heyday in America.<br><br>Although the trend was short-lived, the penny-farthing became a symbol of the<br>late Victorian era. Its popularity also coincided with the birth of cycling as a<br>sport.<br><br>History<br>Main article: History of the bicycle § 1870s: the high-wheel bicycle<br>Origins and development<br><br>Book cover of The Modern Bicycle, published in London in 1877<br>Eugène Meyer of Paris is now regarded as the father of the high bicycle[9] by<br>the International Cycling History Conference in place of James Starley. Meyer<br>patented a wire-spoke tension wheel with individually adjustable spokes in<br>1869.[3] They were called "spider" wheels in Britain when introduced there.<br>Meyer produced a classic high bicycle design during the 1880s.<br><br>James Starley in Coventry added the tangent spokes[3] and the mounting step to<br>his famous bicycle named "Ariel". He is regarded as the father of the British<br>cycling industry. Ball bearings, solid rubber tires and hollow-section steel<br>frames became standard, reducing weight and making the ride much smoother.<br><br>Penny-farthing bicycles are dangerous because of the risk of headers (taking a<br>fall over the handlebars head-first). Makers developed "moustache" handlebars,<br>allowing the rider's knees to clear them, "Whatton" handlebars that wrapped<br>around behind the legs,[14] and ultimately (though too late, after development<br>of the safety bicycle), the American "Eagle" and "Star" bicycles, whose large<br>and small wheels were reversed. This prevented headers but left the danger of<br>being thrown backwards when riding uphill. Other attempts included moving the<br>seat rearward and driving the wheel by levers or treadles, as in the<br>"Xtraordinary" and "Facile", or gears, by chain as in the "Kangaroo" or at the<br>hub, as in the "Crypto";[15] another option was to move the seat well back, as<br>in the "Rational".<br><br>Even so, bicycling remained the province of the urban well-to-do, and mainly<br>men, until the 1890s, and was a salient example of conspicuous consumption.<br><br>Attributes<br><br>Man standing next to a penny farthing in Fife, Scotland, 1880<br>The penny-farthing used a larger wheel than the velocipede, thus giving higher<br>speeds on all but the steepest hills. In addition, the large wheel gave a<br>smoother ride, important before the invention of pneumatic tires.<br><br>Although the high riding position seems daunting to some, mounting can be<br>learned on a lower velocipede. Once the technique is mastered, a high wheeler<br>can be mounted and dismounted easily on flat ground and some hills.[citation<br>needed]<br><br>An attribute of the penny-farthing is that the rider sits high and nearly over<br>the front axle. When the wheel strikes rocks and ruts, or under hard braking,<br>the rider can be pitched forward off the bicycle head-first. Headers were<br>relatively common and a significant, sometimes fatal, hazard. Riders coasting<br>down hills often took their feet off the pedals and put them over the tops of<br>the handlebars, so they would be pitched off feet-first instead of head-first.<br><br>Penny-farthing bicycles often used similar materials and construction as earlier<br>velocipedes: cast iron frames, solid rubber tires, and plain bearings for<br>pedals, steering, and wheels. They were often quite durable and required little<br>service. For example, when cyclist Thomas Stevens rode around the world in the<br>1880s, he reported only one significant mechanical problem in over 20,000<br>kilometres (12,000 mi), caused when the local military confiscated his bicycle<br>and damaged the front wheel.<br><br>End of an era<br>The well-known dangers of the penny-farthing[24] were, for the time of its<br>prominence, outweighed by its strengths. While it was a difficult, dangerous<br>machine, it was simpler, lighter, and faster than the safer velocipedes of the<br>time. Two new developments changed this situation, and led to the rise of the<br>safety bicycle. The first was the chain drive, originally used on tricycles,<br>allowing a gear ratio to be chosen independent of the wheel size. The second was<br>the pneumatic bicycle tire, allowing smaller wheels to provide a smooth ride.<br><br><br>An 1880 penny-farthing (left), and the first modern bicycle, J. K. Starley's<br>1885 Rover safety bicycle (right)<br>The nephew of one of the men responsible for popularity of the penny-farthing<br>was largely responsible for its demise. James Starley had built the Ariel<br>(spirit of the air) high-wheeler in 1870; but this was a time of innovation, and<br>when chain drives were upgraded so that each link had a small roller, higher and<br>higher speeds became possible without the need for a large front wheel.<br><br>In 1885, Starley's nephew John Kemp Starley took these new developments to<br>launch the modern bicycle, the Rover safety bicycle, so-called because the<br>rider, seated much lower and farther behind the front wheel contact point, was<br>less prone to a header.<br><br>In 1888, when John Dunlop re-invented the pneumatic tire for his son's tricycle,<br>the high wheel was made obsolete. The comfortable ride once found only on tall<br>wheels could now be enjoyed on smaller chain-driven bicycles. By 1893,<br>high-wheelers were no longer being produced. Use lingered into the 1920s in<br>track cycling until racing safety bicycles were adequately designed.
