Only in 1866 did Pierre Lallement get his US patent for a bicycle propelled by pedals attached to a slightly larger front wheel. And starting in 1868, Pierre Michaux made this vélocipède design popular in France. But the Michaudine did not become the precursor of modern bicycles; it was just an ephemeral novelty. The entire 1870s and the early 1880s were dominated by high-wheelers (also known as “ordinary” or penny-farthing bicycles), their pedals attached directly to the axles of front wheels with diameters of up to 1.5 meters to provide a longer distance per pedal revolution. These clumsy
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