"That's a funny looking thing. What do you call it," asked a youngster in Philadelphia in early March, 2004. I was riding there with the Pennsylvania Wheelmen, part of an international group of vintage bicycle enthusiasts.

"Look, there goes a man riding a giant unicycle," said a woman standing at her kitchen door.

"No, it's a big tricycle," said her friend.

In its day, the highwheel was well known. Men simply called it their wheel. Originally known as a penny farthing, it started in England about 1871 when James Starley and others built the first model.

Five years later it was introduced in the U. S. at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. By 1878, America was building its own highwheels (and importing some, too). The rage swept the country. It revolutionized travel by giving man independence.

With an oversized wheel, the highwheel allowed a traveler to go far distances without a horse. And he could do so whenever he wanted, without having to wait for a passenger train or stagecoach to roll into town. Quite simply, the highwheel gave man the ability to roam under his own power.

But today, the highwheel's history is largely forgotten. People are familiar with antique cars, but the highwheel and early bicycle industry are overlooked. It shouldn't be that way because, quite frankly, we owe much to the highwheel and to some of the world's greatest engineering minds that created it.

Long before Henry Ford created his famous Model T, he experiemented with a four-wheeled bicycle, called a quadrocycle. He added a tiny, two-cylinder engine mounted on a frame and topped with a bicycle seat. At that moment, the forerunner of today's car was born.

Not to be outdone, two other bicycle builders eventually put us into flight. Orville and Wilbur Wright operated their shop in Dayton, OH, where they applied engineering genius - aerodynamics - first to early bikes and then to wings.

This was a big step forward, because - at the time - man was basking in the glow of an invention called the sewing machine. That was a big deal. But after that major accomplishment, the focus turned to perfecting something which would allow personal travel. Keep in mind that skilled labor was producing the highest level of craftsmanship in those days.

As a result, highwheels were among the most technologically advanced products made. They sported loud horns and even lanterns for night riding.

In fact, the early bicycle industry invented our first commercialized version of rack and pinion steering with the 1878 Coventry Rotary trike. It also created the first rear differential, made by James Starley of Coventry, England. As mentioned, the bike also led to powered air flight (the Wright Bros.), tension spoke wheels, pneumatic tires in 1888 (Dunlop of Belfast, Ireland), odometers, dash mounted clocks and even a machine called the motorcycle. 

In fact, the extreme popularity of the highwheel led to the paved roads we enjoy today, as the League of American Wheelmen pushed Congress for "Good Roads," a popular campaign of the day.

The achievements of highwheel riders were unparalleled. In 1884, a man named Tom Stevens became the first to ride a highwheel around the world, a trip that took three years. Many others set distance records. Racing also was a big attraction for highwheel riders.

So why is the highwheel virtually unrecognized today?

It's because they existed for only about 20 years and then quickly vanished. Highwheels were largely gone from the scene by 1892.

They disappeared because they were notorious for flipping forward. A highwheel rider is situated directly over the center of balance. It doesn't take much for the bike to tilt forward and throw the rider face-first into the ground. Many were seriously injured or even killed this way, the result of what is called "taking a header."

There are other dangers, too, such as when going slowly. It doesn't take much for the rider to lose balance. Once that happens, a fall is inevitable because the rider is seated too high to stop a fall.

On the positive side, the highwheel is a thrill to ride, providing a sensation of floating on air.

"Yes it's an art, but it's serious," says Dennis Schafer, of Jim Thorpe, PA. "You can easily get hurt."

Schafer can attest to the danger. After learning to ride, he tumbled from a highwheel during an appearance at the Walnutport, PA, Canal Festival. Schafer tore ligaments in his shoulder and was treated at Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital, Lehighton. He spent four weeks with his arm immobilized.

Similarly, Donald Serfass was thrown forward on a 52" highwheel in the summer of 2007 while performing at  Eckley, PA, Miners Village, a living museum operated by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. He broke his wrist in two places, bruised his ribs and injured a knee.

In a way, those incidents mirror the reason why the highwheel was abandoned. It was just too dangerous.

Around 1915, the old highwheels were removed from storage in barn rafters and donated to the WWI scrap drive. The machines were melted for the war effort. Others were melted years later during the WWII scrap drive.

Today, there are estimated to be about 5,000 original highwheels remaining. They can cost from $3,500 to $10,000.  Many have been owned by museums or are stored in private collections - hung on walls like trophies - a place they've been for at least eight decades.

As a result, the fixed gear highwheel has been gone from public view for a century, almost as if it never existed.

The highwheel is the missing link in the history of travel, a lesson I learn over and over whenever I go out to ride.

"I'm 90 years old and this is the first one I've ever seen," said a woman at the Mahanoy City, PA, high rise building. Many others offered similar observations when I demonstrated the machine at that location.

Through all of this, I've come to understand that a significant part of the story of transportation is misunderstood. Man did not go from riding horseback to driving a Model T Ford, as most people are led to believe.

Instead, he went from horse to highwheel. And he did so in large numbers. This happened at least 20 years before any mass-produced auto ever hit the street.

So, in a sense, the highwheel was the first horseless carriage. It inspired the framework for today's transportation with its own special footprint of fluidity and grance.

The giant wheel was, indeed, practical transportation. But it also was pure art in motion, a scene of extraordinary grace and beauty painted on the fading canvas of time.