The Penny Farthing

WALHT: Find and use information to write a concise report that includes images to inform our readers.

The Penny Farthing bicycle was invented by James Starley a British Engineer. This bicycle was invented in England. It arrived on New Zealand's road in the year 1870. The Penny Farthing came out in the late 1860. The three men in the picture rode the penny farthing from Christchurch to the west Coast in the year 1887. Another name for the Penny Farthing is “Ordinary”.

This bicycle has a large sized wheel in the anterior side of the bike and a undersized wheel behind the bike. The front wheel of the penny farthing is immense because back in the year 1878 the Gears and all the motives were not invented.

The Penny Farthing was invented for only men because back in the 1800’s it was not suitable for women to ride, because what the women wore was not comfortable to wear. what they wore back then was dresses and petticoats under their dresses.

The bicycle’s front wheel was about 50 inches tall and the hind wheel is about 5 to 6 inches high. The bicycle itself is around the height of 5 feet tall or 1.5 metres high.

How the men get on to this bicycle is to climb on to the back wheel which has a bar that comes across from the hind wheel. Then when the men stand on the bar they will have to push themselves onto the seat and control the handle bars. On the bike there is two pedals just like a normal bike but the pedals are way higher up than regular bikes though and there is a seat that you can sit on at the top of the bike.