CTC Gazette, Vol 1899, No 9
Articles in this issue
- Covers 'Reciprocity' (temporary C.T.C. membership extended to L.A.W. and Canadian Wheelmen's Association members), reprints the C.T.C. and Automobile Club's joint Daily Telegraph protest over Hertfordshire police targeting cyclists and motorists for furious riding, disputes with the Christy Saddle Co. over a saddle-comparison letter, and contrasts light fines for unlit carts against heavier fines for unlit cycles at Hythe and Kenilworth.
- Half-Yearly General Meeting notice (Birmingham, 13 October), a British Handbook shortage appeal, Rights and Privileges Committee guidance and the District Associations list, Touring Bureau and Library details, Club Road Book and Handbook sales information, customs arrangements for touring in Italy, Switzerland, the U.S. and Belgium, Thomas Cook & Son tour discounts, and the Club costume supplier.
- Lord Advocate A. Graham Murray announces a subscription committee of Kendall Burnett, O. H. Beatty, Professor Boys and J. K. Starley to mark Secretary E. R. Shipton's service in the Club's majority year, subscriptions capped at 2s. 6d. per member.
- Minutes of the Council meeting at the Granby Hotel, Harrogate, 12 August 1899, chaired by W. Kendall Burnett, electing T. Fitchew Representative Councillor for Kent and Paul Hardy Advertisement Manager, confirming Rev. N. F. Duncan and T. H. Holding as Honorary Life Members, with interim reports of the Rights and Privileges, Map and Road Book (Bartholomew and Johnston negotiations), General Purposes, and Foreign and Colonial Touring Arrangements Committees.
- Reports and September run schedules from the Dublin, Lancashire and Cheshire (Liverpool and Manchester sections), Leicestershire, Londonderry and Donegal, Lothians, and Northumberland and Durham District Associations, including the new Londonderry and Donegal Association's founding meeting under Captain John Wilson.
- Account of the Club's 21st-anniversary week at Harrogate: forty-one riders touring via Ilkley, Bolton Abbey, Ingleborough Cave, Kirkby Lonsdale, Grange, Keswick, Honister Pass and Ullswater, the commemorative dinner speeches by Kendall Burnett, T. H. Holding and E. R. Shipton, presentations to Treasurer W. B. Gurney and Archer White, and A. W. Rumney's account of organising the tour.
- Archibald Sharp continues his serial with chain-wheel trade standards and Hans Renold's pitch allowance, chain strength and durability calculations, gear-case types (Carter, Dover, Bluemel, Presto, Princesa, Simplex, Gormully and Jeffery) and chain-adjustment mechanisms including eccentric and B.S.A. volute-cam adjusters.
- Notice of Archer Moresby White's "Every Cyclist's Manual," praising its thirteen chapters on cyclists' legal rights, the Highway Acts, railway and innkeeper questions, and accidents, despite noting some inaccuracies.
- C. W. Brown on back-pedalling brakes and compulsory-brake proposals, handle-bar stem safety, a trial of the cross-framed Raleigh safety, the Echo puncture-preventing shield, the Cooper rim brake, the Manchester "Midget" gas lamp and the Dance luggage carrier.
- C. L. Freeston opens a series on Alpine pass cycling, 'Some Notes on the Chief Passes,' arguing for its scenic, climatic and coasting rewards over diligence or walking travel, citing the Engadine road's sixty-mile high-altitude ride as an example.
- The Editor traces cycling history from Kirkpatrick Macmillan's 1842 Dumfriesshire-built bicycle and Glasgow ride, through R. B. Turner's Coventry manufacture, T. H. Holding's 1876 Bicycling News letters proposing a Tourist Club, the 1878 Harrogate founding meeting, the first Monthly Circular reproduced in facsimile, and the Club's moves through Newcastle, Bradford and London under Secretaries Welford, Auty and Shipton.
- F. T. Bidlake reviews the Bricknell Auxiliary Hand Gear, comparing it with earlier hand-gear attempts by Fontaine and Zimer, and disputes Mr. Thomas Knowles's "elbow-crank" claims and R. L. Jefferson's endorsement of it.
- Constance Everett-Green discusses mixed member experiences with porosity cures, trip cyclometers and C.T.C. hotel contracts, advises on machine adjustment and dress for women cyclists, glove care, and warns against over-inflating tyres in hot weather.
- Member letters on back-pedalling mechanics (G. Thompson and C. L. Fieber challenging Archibald Sharp), variable gears, free wheels (Tom Bowling defending them against C. W. Brown), spring-frames, the Rowley Puncture Locater, the St. Crispin saddle, Bowden brake delivery delays, the Quadrant and Columbia chainless machines, hotel arrangements, and a carved Bakewell church stall.
- Tabulated monthly renewal and membership figures for the Club from 1878 to August 1899, plus tables of surplus assets over liabilities from 1882 to 1898; a footnote records the current membership strength, including September's Candidates, as 59,682.
- The Editor's replies to members on machine recommendations, gear and crank sizing, the Rowley Puncture Locater, acetylene lamps, and tyre and saddle choices for named readers including "An Anglo-Indian" and Miss Arabella Furnell.
- The September 1899 roll of new membership candidates arranged by English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish and foreign counties and countries, from Bedfordshire through to India, Burma and the United States.
- Photograph of the C.T.C. badge reproduced as a firework set-piece at the Crystal Palace display during the International Touring Clubs' Congress visit of 8 June 1899.
- Members' notices seeking touring companions for destinations including Dartmoor, Normandy and Brittany, the Rhine and Moselle valleys, southern Europe and Algiers, and a proposed Irish party's tour through England in mid-September.