Penny-farthing the trend was short-lived, the penny-farthing became a symbol of the late Victorian era. Its popularity also coincided with the birth of cycling as a sport. Eugène Meyer of Paris, France is now regarded as the father of the high bicycle by the International Cycling History Conference in place of James Starley. Meyer patented a wire-spoke tension wheel with individually adjustable spokes in 1869. They were called "spider" wheels in Britain when introduced there. Meyer produced a classic high bicycle design during the 1880s. James Starley in Coventry added the tangent spokes and the mounting step to his famous bicycle
The History of a Town The History of a Town The History of a Town is a fictional chronicle by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin first published in 1870 and regarded as the major satirical Russian novel of the 19th century. Originally it came out subtitled: "Based on true historical documents and published by M.E.Saltykov (Shchedrin)", implying the latter to be a publisher, not the author. In the 1867-1868 Saltykov-Shchedrin stopped working upon the "Pompadours and Pompadouresses" series of short stories and sketches and started upon a novel, seeing it a kind of a spin-off for the cycle. In January 1869 two first chapters ("The City Inventory" and