3min chapter

Patented: History of Inventions cover image

The Bicycle with Tim Harford

Patented: History of Inventions

CHAPTER

The Safety Bicycle, Not the Penny Farthing

The penny farthing was a huge factor in the emancipation of women. But i think it was the safety bicycle, rather than the penny farthing, that really opened it up to the masses. What defines the safety bicycle good? It's much more like the shape of the original velociped where your feet can touch the ground and you can travel at a reasonable speed by peddling. So not a light hearted, unyielding planet. Simpler times, you see, worry about safety and this kind of thing. Have you ever been on a penny farthing? They are absolutely lethal, for exactly the reason you've just read out. I've a friend who races penny far

00:00
Speaker 1
So
Speaker 2
not a light hearted, unyielding planet. That's great. Simpler times, you see, worry about safety and this kind of thing. Have you ever been on a penny farthing? They are absolutely lethal, for exactly the reason you've just read out. I've a friend who races penny farthings still, and she owns a couple of penny farthings. My friend cat, hallo cat. But she races them, and they are just terrifying. They
Speaker 1
are just unbelievable. Yes, i can believe it, having not so very long ago, a couple of years ago, fallen off a regular bicycle because the chain veiled importance of maintenance, and hit the tarmac, face first. Tit was, it wasn't a joke. And i wouldn't have wanted to be falling any further than i already did. So yet i can only imagine, really, what it is like to fall from that her and just to smack into the tarmac.
Speaker 2
So, but they were still really, i mean, they were just for racing the penny face tht. People weren't sort of riding around on them, particularly to get from a to b, as i sort of, i mentioned at the beginning, you talked about emancipation, about how, you know, suddenly the bicycle can help low wage people get around cheaply. And we can talk about the emancipation of women as well, i think. But the penny farthing was not that,
Speaker 1
yes. Now, it was a huge, huge factor in the emancipation of women, and cap cap will be able to tell you much more about that than i will. But i think it was the safety bicycle, rather than the penny farthing, that really opened it up to the masses. And that this wasn't this
Speaker 2
a daring, foolhardy thing, but it was, it was simple, practical. What do we mean by the safety bicycle? What defines the safety bicycle good? What finds the safety bicycle is, you're not, you're noti the seat seati o mibut a.
Speaker 1
You're not going to kill yourself automatically. So it's much more like the shape of the original velociped where you, you know, your feet can touch the ground, sowe. See, it really helps ifyou you can put your feet down, get into any trouble. The bicycle is safer. But the reason at the bicycle went from the shape of the velocipede, which looks modern, up to this crazy penny farthing shape, and then back down. It brings the saddle back down to a height of, say, three feet, a metre. What makes that possible is gearing. So you've got the gears, you got the chains, and then you can travel at a reasonable speed by peddling. The velocipe didn't have pedals. The penny farthing didn't have gears. The safety bicycle has pedals and gears, and can travel at a reasonable speed while also travelling at a reasonable height. Now, at the same time, you've got manufacturing improvements, which are making the bikes lighter and stronger. You have the diamond frame very quickly comes along, which is a very simple, strong way to support the structure of the bicycle. And you can make it lighter. Again, you have pneumatic tires. Dun comes along with pneumatic tires, and suddenly the ride is much smoother. N this is all happening within the space of a decade. At the end of the nineteenth century, suc very dramatic. Im did all these innovations?

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