Primitive wooden tricycles with hand-and-foot propulsion were built, while the quadricycle was successfully commercially developed by makers such as Sawyer and Ward.
With the introduction of the light, metal, wire-spoked wheel, tricycles became important.
Many different forms were tried, some of asymmetrical layout and others with the large diameter wheels already in use for the ‘penny farthing’.
These were also used because they still only had solid rubber tyres and the larger wheel afforded the rider some comfort.