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James Starley Facts & Worksheets

James Starley was a British inventor and the father of the bicycle industry.

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James Starley was a British inventor and the father of the bicycle industry. His innovations of velocipedes, such as differential gear and the perfection of the bicycle chain drive systems, revolutionized the bicycle industry at the time. His differential gear also became the cornerstone of the automobile drive system.

See the fact file below for more information on the James Starley or alternatively, you can download our 24-page James Starley worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.

Key Facts & Information

STARLEY’S EARLY LIFE

  • James Starley was born on April 21, 1830, in Albourne, Sussex, England.
  • Daniel Starley, his father, pulled James out of school when he was nine years old so he could help out on the farm.
  • At an early age, he showed his talent as an inventor by making a rat trap from a branch of a willow and an umbrella rib.
  • In 1846, realizing that farming was not for him and his mechanical ingenuity, he fled to London and worked as an under-gardener for John Penn in Lewisham.
  • He used his spare time to create interesting devices, such as a mechanism to allow a duck to get through a hole in a fence and stopping a rat from following it by closing a door. He also found time to mend watches and other mechanical devices.
  • He married Jane Todd in 1853, and they eventually had three sons.

START OF GREAT THINGS TO COME

  • John Penn noticed Starley’s talent in mechanical devices, so when the sewing machines he bought for his wife needed fixing, he asked Starley. James not only fixed it, but he also made some improvements.
  • John Penn was so impressed that he recommended him to Josiah Turner, one of the partners in a machine manufacturing company named Newton, Wilson, and Company.
  • Turner hired Starley in 1855, and he worked under Newton Wilson in London. This allowed him to master the machine’s mechanism, and he made improvements in a double chain stitch machine.
  • In 1861, Starley moved to Coventry and created a factory of sewing machines with Josiah Turner. They named it European Sewing Machines Company but changed it to Coventry Sewing Machine Co. in 1867. The company started by importing and marketing American sewing machines.
  • Starley began inventing his version of the sewing machine and had them patented. His most famous invention was the “European”, with which the user can stitch around the edges of cuffs or the bottom of trouser legs after they were made up.

THE FIRST STARLEY DESIGNED BICYCLE

  • In 1868, the company’s Paris agent, Rowley B. Turner, brought one of the new “boneshakers” from France.
  • Starley became very interested in the bicycle. He decreased the rear wheel’s size and made the front wheel higher. He called it the “Ariel”.
  • He made more improvements on this velocipede, including a mounting step, center-pivot steering, footrests on the fork blades, rubber-covered pedals, and a rounded solid rubber tire. It became the standard bicycle design for the next decade.
  • In 1869, the company received 400 orders of velocipedes to be exported to France. This prompted the company’s name to change to Coventry Machinists Co. Ltd. Josiah Turner and James Starley continued to be the managers. At the same time, William Hillman and George Singer were the foremen.
  • In 1870, James Starley started a new company and left the Coventry Machinists Co. In this venture, William Hillman and William Borthwick Smith joined him, with the latter joining him as a business partner. He named the company “Smith, Starley and Co.” He employed two men and four boys. Hillman left the company in 1872, but the company kept making the “Europa” sewing machines and the “Ariel” bicycle.
  • Starley also invented the tangentially-spoked wheel by connecting the hub to the rim, which is a significant improvement over radially spoked-wheels.
  • Starley designed the “Coventry Lever Tricycle”, which featured two small inline wheels on the right-hand side and one large wheel on the left. The rider pedaled a chain drive that delivered power to the big wheel.
  • In 1877, Starley introduced the “Salvo”, the first velocipede with a differential gear system that allowed the wheels to rotate at different speeds. It was later used in cars. This was what historians called the most creative of all Starley’s invention.

LATER LIFE

  • Around Christmas of 1880, Starley began to get sick. On Easter, he discovered a lump on his right side, which he rightly diagnosed as cancer after studying it in an encyclopedia. He was told by Sir James Paget that he would only have three months to live. He died on June 17, 1881.
  • Starley’s sons continued manufacturing bicycles. His nephew, John Kemp Starley, would leave a much more significant impact after designing and manufacturing the Rover. This became the first successful safety bicycle, and it became our modern bicycles’ framework.

James Starley Worksheets

This is a fantastic bundle which includes everything you need to know about the James Starley across 24 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use James Starley worksheets that are perfect for teaching students about James Starley who was a British inventor and the father of the bicycle industry. His innovations of velocipedes, such as differential gear and the perfection of the bicycle chain drive systems, revolutionized the bicycle industry at the time. His differential gear also became the cornerstone of the automobile drive system.

Complete List Of Included Worksheets

  • James Starley Facts
  • Starley’s Bio
  • Starley’s Beginnings
  • An Important Innovation
  • Career of an Inventor
  • Four Achievements
  • Starley’s Velocipedes
  • Fact or Bluff
  • Two Bicycles
  • Use Bike
  • Building Your Bicycle

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Use With Any Curriculum

These worksheets have been specifically designed for use with any international curriculum. You can use these worksheets as-is, or edit them using Google Slides to make them more specific to your own student ability levels and curriculum standards.

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