{"id":177699,"date":"2020-05-07T13:11:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T13:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=177699"},"modified":"2020-05-07T13:11:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T13:11:00","slug":"meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Man Who Was the First to Travel the World on a Penny-Farthing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Thomas Stevens was born in England. At the age of 17, he moved to San Francisco \u2013 a city that introduced him to bicycles. The young fella then learned how to tame a penny-farthing; skill that would change his life for good. In 1885, Thomas purchased a penny-farthing of his own and came up with the idea of riding it around the world. And so a Colombia Standard bicycle became his one trusty companion for the next couple of years.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Safe to say, Thomas travelled like a true adventurer (one could also say a teenager). With a spare shirt, a couple of pairs of socks, a raincoat and a .38 Smith &amp; Wesson revolver (right, this excludes the teenager comparison), Thomas Stevenson embarked on an incredible journey on 22nd April 1884.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-177699 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-large'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/12509043_10153569493571749_1099964630225379130_n.webp'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/12509043_10153569493571749_1099964630225379130_n.webp\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/12509043_10153569493571749_1099964630225379130_n.webp 600w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/12509043_10153569493571749_1099964630225379130_n-300x197.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/12489373_10153569493586749_2835662588452340354_o.webp'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"475\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/12489373_10153569493586749_2835662588452340354_o.webp\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/12489373_10153569493586749_2835662588452340354_o.webp 1024w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/12489373_10153569493586749_2835662588452340354_o-300x139.webp 300w, https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/12489373_10153569493586749_2835662588452340354_o-768x356.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>After three months and 3,700 miles in his legs, the August streets of Boston welcomed the weary traveller. He took a bit of time to relax, spent the winter, and headed for Liverpool. Cheered by a crowd of fans, Stevens set out on the next part of his trip, riding across continental Europe to Constantinople (Istanbul). A little rest and then straight to Anatolia, Kurdistan, and Iran where Thomas accepted an invitation to spend the winter as a guest of the Shah.<\/p>\n<p>Finishing his comfy winter vacation in a Tehran palace, Stevens set out on his next travels through Asia. After being denied entry to Siberia and getting expelled from Afghanistan, he had to return to Constantinople and take a steamer to India. Wheeling along the famous Grand Trunk Road, Thomas finally made it to the shore and boarded a steamer to Southern China. Unfortunately, he arrived right on the time for the protests against the war with the French, so the locals offered him refuge until the situation became stabilised.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_177703\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-177703\" style=\"width: 843px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-177703\" src=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/10265495_10153569493601749_4674582166966410164_o.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"843\" height=\"1079\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-177703\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u00a9 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The last part of Thomas\u2019 journey around the globe took place in Japan. In Yokohama, the final destination, Stevens reckoned he had about 13,500 miles in his legs. Afterwards, he returned to San Francisco, got married, bought a house, and worked as an accountant\u2026 wait. You didn\u2019t really buy that, did you?<\/p>\n<p>In 1888, Stevens learned that a famous adventurer, Henry Morton Stanley, disappeared somewhere in Africa. Without hesitation, Thomas volunteered to join the search. The mission took 14 months and ended up somewhat ironically. Unfortunately, Thomas did not find Mr Morton even though they eventually met up. But it was Mr Morton who found the famously long lost Dr Livingstone.<\/p>\n<p>In the following years, Thomas travelled across Russia on horseback. Then he bought a boat and sailed the rivers of Eastern Europe. Afterwards, he embarked on his India exploration trip. And (who would have guessed) he actually did get married and settled down as a manager of Garrick Theatre in London. The adventures of Thomas Stevens ended in 1935 when he died, aged 80. What a life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Stevens was born in England. At the age of 17, he moved to San Francisco \u2013 a city that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":177700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329,334],"tags":[4118,3154,4117],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-177699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","category-socialising-and-culture","tag-cycling-around-the-world","tag-penny-farthing","tag-thomas-stevens","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Meet the Man Who Was the First to Travel the World on a Penny-Farthing - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thomas Stevens was born in England. At the age of 17, he moved to San Francisco \u2013 a city that introduced him to bicycles. The young fella then learned how\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet the Man Who Was the First to Travel the World on a Penny-Farthing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thomas Stevens was born in England. At the age of 17, he moved to San Francisco \u2013 a city that introduced him to bicycles. The young fella then learned how\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-07T13:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/Thomas-Stevens_CVR.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tereza Antonova\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/\",\"name\":\"Meet the Man Who Was the First to Travel the World on a Penny-Farthing - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/Thomas-Stevens_CVR.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-07T13:11:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"Thomas Stevens was born in England. At the age of 17, he moved to San Francisco \u2013 a city that introduced him to bicycles. The young fella then learned how\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/Thomas-Stevens_CVR.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/Thomas-Stevens_CVR.webp\",\"width\":900,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Meet the Man Who Was the First to Travel the World on a Penny-Farthing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/\",\"name\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"description\":\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine\",\"alternateName\":\"\u0160koda WLC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Meet the Man Who Was the First to Travel the World on a Penny-Farthing - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"Thomas Stevens was born in England. At the age of 17, he moved to San Francisco \u2013 a city that introduced him to bicycles. The young fella then learned how","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Meet the Man Who Was the First to Travel the World on a Penny-Farthing","og_description":"Thomas Stevens was born in England. At the age of 17, he moved to San Francisco \u2013 a city that introduced him to bicycles. The young fella then learned how","og_url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/","og_site_name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","article_published_time":"2020-05-07T13:11:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/Thomas-Stevens_CVR.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tereza Antonova","Est. reading time":"5"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/","name":"Meet the Man Who Was the First to Travel the World on a Penny-Farthing - \u0160koda We Love Cycling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/Thomas-Stevens_CVR.webp","datePublished":"2020-05-07T13:11:00+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"description":"Thomas Stevens was born in England. At the age of 17, he moved to San Francisco \u2013 a city that introduced him to bicycles. The young fella then learned how","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/Thomas-Stevens_CVR.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2020\/05\/Thomas-Stevens_CVR.webp","width":900,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2020\/05\/07\/meet-the-man-who-was-the-first-to-travel-the-world-on-a-penny-farthing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Meet the Man Who Was the First to Travel the World on a Penny-Farthing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/","name":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling","description":"\u0160koda We Love Cycling magazine","alternateName":"\u0160koda WLC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/author\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":177704,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177699\/revisions\/177704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177699"},{"taxonomy":"global-categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/global-categories?post=177699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}