The type of bicycle of which you speak, is called a "penny-farthing" or a "high wheeler". They were the first type of bicycle, and had neither gears nor chains. The large front wheel gave the rider sufficient leverage to move the wheels in the absence of a geartrain to give him a mechanical advantage. High wheelers were breifly popular in the late 1870s and into the 1880s, prior to the invention and popularization of the modern-style "safety bicycle".