Thompson Tricycle
Three-wheeled velocipede, constructed for three riders. The rider on rear seat faces the rear. Wooden wheels, iron frame and tyres. This machine was built in 1868 or 1869 by a blacksmith in Stepney, London, to the design of an engineer named Thompson: it was the only one of its type—which is perhaps just as well!
Thompson, whose property the machine was, died in 1873, and the machine was purchased by a Mr. Schubert, a friend of his, in whose family it remained till 1917, when it came into the possession of Mr. C. A. Smith (well known in the cycling world as "Bath Road Smith") who presented it to the Bartleet collection.
The longest journey known to have been accomplished on this tricycle was from Leyton, London, E., to Rye House. The machine was ridden in the Woodford Meet a few years before the war. [1]