Is this the stupidest invention ever?
Why was it thought to be a good idea?
People often talk about certain items when they want to describe useless object or person.
The Chocolate teapot, The Concrete parachute, or The Cotton wool submarine. These, of course, are fictitious inventions.
But a really stupid one was a very real invention and was actually used and popular among some death wishers in the late nineteenth century.
I am talking about the Penny-Farthing bicycle, also known as the bone shaker.
For those who are unaware of this peculiar form of transport, it was a two wheeled affair, with a front wheel some 60inches in diameter, with a very small wheel at the rear.
The Penny Farthing was invented by a Mr. James Starley in 1870. Why he invented it, I have no idea.
The only way anybody stupid enough to want to mount this contraption and ride it was to get it moving by pushing until it obtained enough speed to be stable, then jump on the saddle.
Although it did possess a primitive brake, it was also necessary to put some backward pressure on the pedals while the contraption was still moving. This meant that being thrown headfirst over the handlebars was a fairly common occurrence.
Despite these shortcomings, the Penny Farthing remained popular for some fifteen years. Eventually, technology was developed that produced the safer and more civilised form of the bicycle we all know and love.
It is worth knowing that the man responsible for the development of this technology was a certain Mr. John Kemp Starley, the nephew of Mr. James Starley, the inventor of the dreaded Penny Farthing.
He obviously had more sense than his uncle.
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