CTC Gazette, Vol 1899, No 3
Articles in this issue
- Previews the Annual General Meeting at St Martin's Town Hall, Charing Cross Road; reports the C.T.C.'s win in the 'sunset' lighting-up test case Gordon v. Cann; discusses the Universal Lights Bill, the V.C.U.'s Nuneaton danger-board dispute, Irish cycling under the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898, and the state of the cycle trade.
- Notice and agenda for the Annual General Meeting (10 March, St Martin's Town Hall), including motions on footpath riding, cycle purchase terms and a new Class B life membership; lists a Representative Councillor vacancy for Sussex, the Road Book, Companion to the Road Book, Handbook, Maps and Continental touring arrangements, and Chief Consuls abroad.
- Minutes of the February 1899 Council meeting: resolutions on Life Membership exemptions, appointment of Representative Councillors for Essex, Hampshire, Middlesex and Surrey, re-appointment of A. G. Rennie as Chief Consul for Bute, election of W. Kendall Burnett as Chairman and O. H. Beatty as Vice-Chairman of the Council, and committee reports from Foreign and Colonial Touring, General Purposes and other committees.
- Reports a smaller net surplus than 1897 owing to the £3,300 cost of the free Handbook and Farm House List and £880 extra Gazette expenditure, gives a table of Road Book sales 1892-1898, and thanks Secretary E. R. Shipton and staff.
- Records membership reaching 54,332 (up 9,841 on 1897), thirteen Council meetings held across the country, 2,301 Danger and Caution Boards erected in 1898 (Cheshire's John Naylor paying for 115 himself), the new International League of Touring Clubs, and the decision to appoint a paid Solicitor.
- Minutes of the 31 January 1899 Finance Committee meeting: recommends a new Standing Order requiring Finance Committee sign-off on expenditure over £50, a 1899 Budget, salary increases for Assistant Secretary and staff, and settles the Chorley & Pickersgill printing-paper dispute over the Gazette.
- Chaired by W. Kendall Burnett, recommends issuing profile itineraries of main Road Book routes, sets out a colour-coded scheme for marking road quality on the Club's adopted map, and pays T. Key of Ambleside £5 for route corrections to Vol. III; carries dissenting riders from E. W. Burke, C. E. Dawson, A. W. Rumney, R. T. Lane, J. T. Lightwood and G. T. McCaw.
- Covers the Hautboy Hotel (Ockham) and Walton Arms indictments, the Bromley Common footpath dispute, advice given to members on railway damage claims (including a Paris-bound cycle wrecked in transit) and a Cardiff running-down case, and hotel-contract reform proposals from H. M. Rankilor.
- Records that Editor R. T. Lang has completed Vol. I of the Irish Road Book and made good progress on Vol. II, and recommends a further £50 instalment of his remuneration.
- Verbatim shorthand transcript of the C.T.C. test case Gordon v. Cann before Justices Lawrence and Channell, in which counsel Macmorran successfully argued that 'an hour after sunset' means local, not Greenwich, mean time, with the appeal allowed with costs.
- Audited accounts for the year ended 31 December 1898 (auditor Wm. F. Allvey), showing a Revenue Account surplus of £1,542 16s., detailed Capital, Life Membership, Reserve Fund, Gazette, Depositors' and Badges accounts, and separate trading accounts for the British and Continental Road Books, Handbooks and the Companion to the Road Book.
- Reports from the Home Counties, Antrim and Down, Lancashire and Cheshire, Leicestershire, Lothians, Northumberland and Durham, and West Riding District Associations, covering annual meetings, caution-board erection and the campaign for Universal Lights bye-laws.
- By R. T. Lang, continuing the Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire main routes (Vol. III): Newark to Sheffield via the Dukeries, Newstead Abbey and Sherwood Forest; Newark to Chesterfield via Southwell Minster and Hardwick Hall; Chesterfield to Gainsborough; and Nottingham to Doncaster through Robin Hood country.
- By F. T. Bidlake, arguing motor cycles will not displace pedal cycling, debating long-crank theory against short cranks, condemning the mounting step in favour of stepless mounting, and analysing frame rigidity with reference to Raleigh tandem design.
- By A. W. Rumney, tracing the history of touring maps from railway time-tables to modern Ordnance Survey sheets, comparing paper, linen and pegamoid map materials, describing relief models and profile plans, and previewing the Map and Road Book Committee's choice of scale.
- By Douglas Leechman, reviewing free-wheel clutches shown at the recent cycle shows, the Salwey gear and British Coaster brake, a ride on the Roulette Sociable Bicycle, and a mechanical dispute with Mr McCaw over gearing and frame strain.
- "In and Around Ely", by M. S. Gore: a cycling visit to Ely Cathedral describing Prior Alan de Walsingham's octagon, Bishop Alcock's palace, and the primitive ferry crossing to 'Babylon' on the river.
- By C. Edwardes, a Spanish touring narrative on a 'Sunbeam' machine from Verin over the mountains to Orense, Vigo, Pontevedra, Caldas de Reyes, El Padron and Santiago de Compostela, ending at Corunna among convalescent Cuban war veterans.
- By Archibald Sharp, opening a serial technical treatise on frame design: mass-centre height, wheel-base, steering-head slope, tube strength (round, D-, oval and rectangular sections), chain-struts, bevel-gear chainless frames, and designs for ladies' bicycles including the Amulet, Elswick and Burford web frames.
- Personal advertisements seeking touring companions, including trips to the Riviera and Spain, the Lake District and Scotland, Belgium, France and Switzerland over the Alps to Rome, and walking tours in the Cleveland Hills.
- By Constance Everett-Green, on riding technique in windy weather (with a Ventnor-to-Portsmouth ride recalled), the effect of side winds on cycling pace, ladies' skirts in a headwind, and a review of the Asp candle lamp.
- By C. W. Brown, reviewing the Lucas 'Acetylator', 'Velo' and 'Parker' acetylene lamps, the Doolittle brake on a Singer safety, the Juhel free-wheel and brake gear, the Guthrie tyre and the Reeves self-inflating single-tube tyre.
- Members' letters on a proposed Veteran's Badge, the Rights and Privileges Committee's cancellation of the Hautboy Hotel agreement and the 'rational dress' controversy, praise for Walter Crane's new Gazette cover, toe-clip design (G. Lacy Hillier), ball-bearing pressure theory (Archibald Sharp and correspondents), touring queries on Spain and Switzerland, and enamel and cyclometer advice.
- By Archer M. White, Barrister-at-Law, a legal digest of 1898 cyclists' cases covering highway obstruction, footpaths, lighting (including Gordon v. Cann), railway carriage of cycles, innkeepers' liability, and cyclists' rights in Ireland under the new Local Government Act.
- The editor's replies to member queries on machine and tyre recommendations, gearing, enamelling, cyclometers and the Gazette's own coverage of tricycling.
- The monthly roll of candidates for ordinary membership, arranged by English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish and foreign counties and countries, including entries from Singapore, British Guiana, Finland, Sweden, France, Burma, Russia, Switzerland and the United States.
- Publishes Article 8's Life Membership rules and the two March 1899 candidates, Colonel R. B. Buscarlet and D. A. Seligman.