PEDAL power has the edge on steam engines and jet propulsion in the eyes of Times readers, according to the first round of voting in the Great British Inventions contest.

The bicycle has emerged as a surprise front-runner in the poll to find the country’s most significant technological breakthrough of the past 250 years, comfortably seeing off competition from railways and aircraft to win the transport category.

It will now go forward to the final shortlist, where it will be joined by vaccination, electricity, the computer and the electric light. Voting for the overall winner — and the title of Britain’s greatest invention of the past 250 years — opens today on The Times website, with polls closing at midnight on Thursday. The winner will be revealed in the newspaper next Saturday.

The most comprehensive victory came in the industry category, in which Michael Faraday’s device for generating electricity won a remarkable 76 per cent of all votes cast. Electricity was yesterday installed as the 1-3 favourite by the online bookmakers Sky Bet.

Vaccination, developed by Edward Jenner in 1796, won the medicine category with 39 per cent of the vote, from penicillin in second place with 28 per cent. It is Sky Bet’s second favourite at odds of 5-2. The tightest contest was in the Way We Live category, which saw the computer (14-1) defeat the electric light by just two votes out of the thousands cast. Both recorded 36 per cent of the overall vote, and both will progress to the final: the electric light (the 100-1 outsider) was our “fastest loser” — the runner-up with the most votes.

In the transport category, the bicycle (66-1), won with 35 per cent of the vote. The steam railway was second with 24 per cent, and the jet engine third with 23 per cent. The 20 entries from which the final shortlist has been drawn were selected on the advice of experts from the National Museum of Science & Industry (NMSI), which includes the Science Museum in London, the National Museum of Photography, Film & Television in Bradford, and the National Railway Museum in York.

Lindsay Sharp, the director of NMSI, said that the first round of voting had produced a “balanced and interesting” shortlist. “The one complete surprise was the inclusion of the bicycle,” he said. “The bicycle is pretty much the perfect machine. It makes the human rider more efficient, and the design has remained basically the same since the safety bicycle replaced the penny farthing in the 1880s.” Dr Sharp will be part of an expert panel to chose their own winners in a public event on Wednesday at the Science Museum’s Dana Centre. The other panellists are Anjana Ahuja, the Times science notebook columnist; Lord Broers, president of the Royal Academy of Engineering; Lord Waldegrave of North Hill, a former science minister; and Mandy Haberman, the award-winning inventor of the Anywayup Cup.

Tickets for the event are free, but must be pre-booked from the Dana Centre box office on 020-7942 4040, or by e-mailing tickets@danacentre.co.uk

THE SHORTLIST: HOW YOU VOTED

The finalists

• Electricity (generators)
• Vaccination
• Bicycle
• Computer (with the world wide web)
• Electric light

The results in each category

• Medicine
  Vaccination 39 per cent
  Penicillin 28 per cent
  Modern genetics 19 per cent
  Microscope 10 per cent
  Medical scanners 5 per cent
• Transport
  Bicycle 35 per cent
  Steam railway 24 per cent
  Jet engine 23 per cent
  Steam turbine 10 per cent
  Radar 8 per cent
• The Way We Live
  Computer and world wide web 36 per cent
  Electric light 36 per cent (two votes behind)
  Telephone 14 per cent
  Television 9 per cent
  Photography 5 per cent
• Industry
  Electricity 76 per cent
  Steel 11 per cent
  Spinning machines 8 per cent
  Safety lamp 3 per cent
  Synthetic dye 2 per cent

Voting is now open online at www.timesonline.co.uk/greatinventions

Voting closes at midnight on Thursday, November 25, and the winner will be announced in The Times on Saturday, November 27.

Readers can also place bets on the winner with the online bookmaker Sky Bet, at www.skybet.com

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