James Starley

James Starley (21 April 1830 – 17 June 1881) was an English inventor and father of the bicycle industry. He was one of the most innovative and successful builders of bicycles and tricycles. His inventions include the differential gear, the perfection of the bicycle chain drive, and the penny-farthing.

Childhood Starley was born in 1830 at Albourne, West Sussex, the son of Daniel Starley, a farmer. He began working on the farm at nine, showing early talent as an inventor by making a rat trap from an umbrella rip and a branch of a willow tree. There he worked as an under-gardener, in his spare time mending watches

Starley and his son William later added a second large wheel and seat in mirror image of the first. This created a quadricycle for two with the wheels in diamond formation: two small wheels on the centre-line at front and back and two large wheels in the middle. Each of the large wheels was powered independently by the rider in the adjacent seat. Starley weighed about 18 stone; his son 10. When they went up a hill, the lesser weight on the wheel on the right, being driven by William, tended to push the front, steered wheel to the left. Realising the solution, Starley cried "I have it". On the following Monday he went to London to patent his differential gear.

Starley later incorporated his differential into regular tricycles and a convertible Coventry Rotary Sociable. This was a Coventry Rotary tricycle (a pedal-and-chain version of the Coventry lever tricycle) which could be converted into a Sociable for two by adding an extra wheel etc, as in his vehicle with William. as of December 2019, it was undergoing demolition as part of a redevelopment program. What was originally D Block of Coventry Polytechnic was renamed after Starley by Coventry University. Once it was demolished it was replaced by Starley Garden.

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