Companies which made these things were the first to depict the "New (*) Woman" outside of the home in ads and took out 1/6th of all ads in the 1890s.  
An exclusive club in New York was named for Pierre Michaux, a possible inventor of these things.  Michaux's invention was nicknamed the "bone-shaker".  These devices were used by a much-loathed group of people called "scorchers".  A powerful lobbying group named LAW was originally founded to represent people who used these things. One of the first men to manufacture these devices, "Colonel" Albert Augustus Pope, found success with the Columbia line of them. Companies which made these things were the first to depict the "New (*) Woman" outside of the home in ads and took out 1/6th of all ads in the 1890s.  John Boyd Dunlop reinvented a rubber device first used in these things. The "safety" variety of these devices removed the direct-drive mechanism present in the penny-farthings, replacing them with a gear chain and also evened out the wheel sizes.  For 10 points, name these two-wheeled human-powered vehicles.
An exclusive club in New York was named for Pierre Michaux, a possible inventor of these things.  
bicycle [or bike; or high wheel bike; or safety bike; or Velocipede; or tricycles; accept penny-farthing before mentioned] 