Around the World on a Bicycle

In 1884, the 29 year old Thomas Stevens (that's him to the right) set out from San Fransisco on the 'modern mechanical invention' of the Penny Farthing. His aim was to circumnavigate the globe on his 'big wheel'. He wrote about his journey and it was published as a book "Around the World on a Bicycle" in 1888. The full text of the book is available from Project Gutenberg and is used as the source for this site.

In mid-August 2004 I started to read his book and thought it might be a good idea to present his writings as a blog. This means that it will be updated as and when I have time. Although I haven't changed the text, in order to present the book as a series of time-stamped entries, I have had to occasionally break paragraphs. I have also annotated the text with links to external websites, where possible, to give the reader a feel for some of the places through which he travelled. The time-stamps of the entries should be taken as 'best guesses' although they are generally correct to the nearest day.

Stuart Lowe, August 2004