How the penny-farthing outlived its age
It was the penny-farthing that helped establish cycling as a recreational pastime, despite the obvious problems in getting on and off one. Filey had a particular love affair with them; in 1882, Herbert Liddell Cortis, son of the local doctor, set a world speed record on one, clocking 20mph.
But by the end of that decade the design had been rendered obsolete by the safety bicycle, whose wheels were of equal size, and by the Dunlop pneumatic tyre. Nevertheless, official penny-farthing racing continued until well after the First World War.
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