Several individuals have claimed paternity for the folding bike, and folding bike brands owe a great deal to them:
The Englishman William Grout is believed to be the very first to have designed a folding penny-farthing in 1878. This initial version was disassemblable (the large front wheel detached from the frame) and took an average of 10 minutes to complete the operation.
However, the first to have filed a patent was Emmit G. Latta in the USA, on September 16, 1887. His objective was to manufacture a bicycle that was easier to store and took up minimal space. For the time, his design was very successful: he started with a classic bicycle and managed to finalize a folding system with a hinge that articulated the wheels towards each other. He sold his patent to the Pope Manufacturing Company, but unfortunately, no trace remains of a bicycle manufactured under this patent.
