CTC Gazette, Vol 1899, No 1
Articles in this issue
- Reports 1898 membership figures (54,332 total, over 21,000 new members) and translates a new French decree requiring cycle badges from May 1899; also covers the Gazette's enlargement and better paper for 1899, the abolition of interleaved advertisements, an N.C.U. court defeat on whether cycles are 'personal luggage', and the annual election of Chief Consuls due 7th January.
- Annual subscription renewal notice (5s., due 31 January), the 1899 Handbook, Farmhouse List, British and Irish Road Book volumes and Continental Road Book prices, lists of Chief Consuls abroad, and the new Austria-Hungary/Italy/Switzerland/U.S.A. special-ticket requirement from 1 January 1899.
- Report of the scrutineers of the voting papers for the General Election of Councillors, giving county-by-county poll results (Cheshire, Durham, Lancashire, Surrey, Yorkshire and grouped counties) and a dispute among the scrutineers over asterisks marking sitting Council members on the voting papers.
- Minutes of the monthly Council meeting held at the Queen's Hotel, Birmingham on 10 December 1898, chaired by C. W. Kendall Burnett, including resolutions on Chief Consul vacancies and resignations, committee reports (Finance, Map and Road Book for Ireland and the Continent, Roads Improvement Association), and the Interim Report of the Rights and Privileges Committee covering the Hautboy Hotel case, railway claims and the Cardigan danger-board prosecution.
- Three small-ads from members seeking touring companions, including a young Englishman proposing a winter trip to France or Algeria and a lady near Pendleton seeking afternoon-ride company.
- Reports from the Antrim and Down, Dublin, Lancashire and Cheshire, Leicestershire, Lothians, Northumberland and Durham, and West Riding District Associations, including the formation meeting of the Antrim and Down Association at Belfast with an address from Professor Dougan, and the Lothians' arrangements for its January AGM.
- Archibald Sharp reviews mechanical advances shown at the 1898 National and Stanley cycle shows, covering frame construction, tyre inflation, bearings, chain gears (including the Quadrant cross-roller and Carter & Wright spiral gears), long cranks and two-speed gears, free-pedal devices such as the Wilkinson Sword and Eclipse coasters, brakes, saddles, acetylene lamps and falling machine prices.
- Archer M. White, barrister, sets out the law on railway level crossings affecting cyclists, citing cases including Wyatt v. G.E. Rly., Stapley v. L.B. & S.C. Rly. and Dartford v. Bexley Heath Rly., on gate obstruction, lighting duties and liability for accidents at gates.
- Charles L. Freeston reviews the 1898 Paris Salon du Cycle, criticising French makers' stagnation and imitation of American design, noting the abundance of wicker 'Victoria' trailers, chainless bevel-gear machines, motor-tricycles, and the novelty 'Sanitas' hand-and-foot bicycle and 'Elastic' spring frame.
- Reviews Lacy Hillier's 'The Art of Ease in Cycling' on ankle-action, praising its ankling diagrams, followed by short news items including a Shanghai letter on reckless native cyclists, a Belfast collision court case (Black v. Dixon) and a Shoreditch County Court case over a lady cyclist injured in a gig collision.
- F. T. Bidlake continues his correspondence-column debate with Mr. Sankey and Mr. Edmonds over step versus stepless mounting and dismounting, then discusses hill gradients and the Kohler folding-crank gear, using Muswell Hill and the Contour Road Books as examples.
- Reprints and critiques a Railway News article arguing bicycles are not 'personal luggage', detailing the practical difficulties railway companies face packing cycles in luggage vans and citing Great Northern Railway figures of nearly 20,000 machines carried in three months.
- A. W. Rumney reflects on what was missing from the cycle shows (camping tents, map publishers' stalls), recounts the origin of the Bicycle Touring Club through Mr. T. H. Holding and Mr. S. J. A. Cotterell at Harrogate in 1878, and shares hotel-bill anecdotes from touring.
- Constance Everett-Green surveys 1898 show novelties of interest to women cyclists, including Bowden and front-wheel brakes, dress-guard improvements, the 'lady's portable kerbstone' mounting device, and straight-frame models from Rover and Raleigh.
- C. W. Brown's two-part review of the 1898 National (Crystal Palace) and Stanley (Agricultural Hall) cycle shows, covering hub and bracket designs from Sunbeam, Centaur, Raleigh, Rover, Osmond and others, chainless and free-wheel gears, ladies' and tandem machines, brazeless frames, spring frames and folding cycles.
- Specially reported account of Britten v. The Great Northern Railway Co., heard before Mr. Justice Channell, ruling that a bicycle is not 'ordinary luggage' a passenger may carry free of charge, followed by a Manchester County Court case awarding damages to a cyclist run down by a pony and trap.
- Short miscellaneous news paragraphs including a clergyman fined for wheeling his bicycle on a Stamford footpath, a Kensington High Street collision with a London Road-car Company bus (Naylor's case), the economics of steam-rolling roads in Leicestershire, and a Mansfield County Court case over a cyclist knocking down a pedestrian.
- Members' letters on hotel and touring experiences in France, Spain and Ireland, a lengthy technical exchange between Archibald Sharp and E. Mushing (Centaur Cycle Co.) on virtual points of support in ball-bearings, debates on toe clips, rim brakes, the Doolittle brake, free wheels (Whippet/Protean), acetylene lamps, led horses, danger boards and carrying hockey sticks.
- The editor's brief replies to members on lamps, brakes, machine recommendations, Ordnance Survey maps, saddle position, the Club's balance sheet and life membership subscription queries.
- The monthly roll of new candidates for membership listed by county and country, from Bedfordshire through the Home Counties, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and abroad (France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the United States, India and the colonies).
- Reprints Article 8 and the 1888 resolutions governing Life Membership composition and trust funds, followed by the January 1899 list of Life Membership candidates.