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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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penny-farthing
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The usual name now for the bicycle known in its own time as the Ordinary, the large front wheel and small back one bringing to mind a large and small everyday coin of recent times (see *£.s.d.). The Ordinary evolved from the Ariel, designed by James Starley (1831–81) and produced in Coventry from 1871. It remained the standard bicycle throughout the 1880s, until replaced in the 1890s by early versions of the modern machine (the Safety bicycle), which used a chain to achieve the gearing of the Ordinary's large wheel. The term 'penny-farthing' seems not to have been coined until the 1920s.
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