Rivista Mensile del Touring Club Italiano, Vol 11, No 7
Articles in this issue
- Further notes on the Touring Club Italiano's tenth-anniversary festival of 27-29 May 1905 in Milan, where squads paraded past the monuments to Garibaldi, King Vittorio and Giuseppe Parini in Piazza Cordusio.
- Opening of the volunteer cyclist and motorist department, praising the squads of volontari ciclisti applauded at the Touring festival and urging the movement to spread throughout Italy.
- Portrait and full service record of Felice Gioacchino Sismondo, president of the Comitato Nazionale Centrale V. C. A.: born at Castiglione (Asti) in 1836, decorated at Custoza in 1866, later commander-general of the Carabinieri and senator.
- Il Giornale d'Italia interviews Captain Angherà, who argues the V. C. A. central committee should stay in Milan rather than Rome and that volunteer cyclist units should merge with the tiro a segno rifle societies.
- Review of the third edition of L'educazione sociale del soldato by infantry captains Pietro De Domenico and Rinaldo Bonatti, noted for its pages on volunteer cyclist and motorist units and the folding bicycle in military service.
- Full results of the 28 May shooting contest between volunteer cyclist squads at the Boldinasco range near Milan: Brescia won with 109 points, ahead of Ancona (103) and Pisa (101).
- The commemorative diploma sent to the 150 volunteers of the first cyclist experiment on Lake Garda, signed by Colonel Chiarla, Count Bettoni (mayor of Brescia) and A. Mercanti of the executive committee.
- The definitive statute of the national volunteer cyclist and motorist corps, approved in Rome on 27-28 June under General Sismondo, setting a central committee in Rome, sub-committees in Rome and Milan and a motoring sub-committee in Turin.
- Messages of congratulation received for the national touring festival, including the Milan Chamber of Commerce, the municipalities of Alessandria and Domodossola, consuls in St Petersburg and Monte Carlo, and gifts from Bai (chocolate) and Campari.
- The Unione Cooperativa's own account of catering the 3,400-cover 'banchettissimo' in the Castello Sforzesco, with statistics: 498 staff, 20,030 pieces of crockery, 1,500 kg of beef, 7,650 bottles and 3,000 packed lunches for the Sempione excursion.
- Silvio Martinenghi corrects Maggiorino Ferraris's figures on Italian season tickets (L. 1201 for one network, L. 1701 for all lines) and compares them unfavourably with the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée, Switzerland and Spain.
- The technical commission proposes two routes for the long-awaited tramway from Como up to the San Fermo hill, one on ing. Ciceri's southern-slope alignment, the other on the eastern side between Cardano, Borgo Vico and the Valleria.
- Ing. Massimo Tedeschi describes the Compagnie Générale de Constructions Electriques' 'geodetic' carriage, which records distance, curve angles and gradients automatically on a paper strip, surveying 15-20 km a day against 1-2 km by ordinary methods.
- The Ministry of Public Works' rules for Title III of the new road police regulation put the Genio Civile in charge of checking axle loads and macadam bearing pressure before licensing public motor services.
- Comparison of the draft English motor regulation going to the House of Commons with the Italian rules: 5,000-6,500 kg unladen weight, 2.28 m maximum width and 15 km/h on metal tyres, against Italy's 2,500 kg per axle.
- Touring consulates around Novara are collecting signatures for a petition to the provincial council demanding that provincial and communal roads be made fit for bicycles and motor cars.
- The road foremen and cantonieri of Cuneo province petition their provincial council for restored seniority grades, monthly pay of 50-60 lire, tools supplied by the administration and a four-kilometre maximum for each man's stretch.
- Newton Gibson's 'compensating negative': a heavily under-exposed gelatino-bromide plate exposed through the glass and bound against a second plate to soften excessive contrast, useful for interiors and still subjects but too slow for landscape.
- Darcy Power, writing in San Francisco's Camera Craft, argues orthochromatic plates can harm a picture: a yellow cross on a purple ground of equal luminous value renders as one flat grey, so the artist must falsify the values to keep the contrast.
- Prof. Rodolfo Namias reports Dr Smith's patented triple-layer plate giving three colour-separation negatives at one exposure, and the Farbwerke vorm. Lucius & Bruning 'Pinatipia' dye-transfer process described by Dr Konig.
- Portraits of four infant Touring members: five-year-old tricyclist Luisina Gori of Chieti, three-year-old Tommasino Baiocco of Scafa, 87-cm-tall Umberto Terreni of Parabiago who already rides a bicycle alone, and baby Renzo Costa of Rovereto.
- Review of the cycle and motor show held in Milan's Giardini Pubblici from 11 May: Fiat's 24 HP chassis, Züst 40/60 HP, Isotta Fraschini, Florentia, Bianchi, the four-cylinder Republic and F. N. motorcycles, and Pirelli tyres.
- Detailed description of the Florentia works at Florence and its three 1905 Rochet-Schneider-licensed models: 16 HP normal and long chassis and a 35 HP, with four-cylinder engines, Bosch magneto, Dubrulle lubricator and honeycomb radiator.
- The German Adler motorcycle, built at the Adler-Fahrradwerke vorm. Heinrich Kleyer works in Frankfurt: 2½, 3 and 4 HP models, unwelded parallel-tube frame, sprung forks front and rear, and Carlo Glockner as Milan agent.
- A compression-ignition device in which a small auxiliary piston squeezes part of the mixture in a chamber in the cylinder head until it self-ignites, the flame then firing the main charge; ports control the ignition advance.
- Survey of new anti-skid and puncture-proof tyres, including the leather Le Marquis by Dufour with steel-studded double band, the G. E. Heyl-Dia studded cover, Clarkson's leather tyre, the American Autraf leather-block wheel and the tubeless Seddon and Tolpon-Holmy.
- Sig. Ravinetti's double-acting single-cylinder petrol engine, with a fixed-rod piston dividing the cylinder into two combustion chambers so that induction and compression happen at every stroke; the writer doubts its practical construction.
- Prof. Ing. Effren Magrini's verdict on the Automobile Club di Milano's international touring competition: bad weather but excellent organisation, warm receptions at Florence and Rome, and praise from the French technical press for commissioners Massoni, Weill Schott, Dal Pozzo, Brigatti and Count Taverna.
- Turin's chauffeur school, opened 24 January 1905, took 161 pupils - 130 mechanics and 31 'gentlemen' - taught mechanics, carburettors, gearboxes, road law and first aid; 100 of 105 mechanics passed the oral exam, with domestics outscoring mechanics.
- French treasury statistics on motoring: 12,519 private and 4,588 industrial cars in 1904, 16,118 motorcycles and 1,133,980 bicycles - one bicycle per 36 inhabitants and one car per 3,146 - with exports of 71 million francs.
- The Sultan of Zanzibar's prime minister had a car idle for three years until Lieutenant Tanca of the Italian ship Volturno, with sub-lieutenants Cignozzi and Mercalli - all Touring members - repaired it well enough to cross the island.
- Tables of specific gravities and boiling points distinguishing petroleum ether, rigolene, gasoline, benzine and ligroin as classified by various distillers and the American Company; motor benzine should measure 0.680-0.700 at 15 degrees.
- A German inquiry reported in Die Umschau canvasses Conrad, the expert Altmann, engineer Klose and Oscar Constrom on whether cheap motor cars are possible, with proposals ranging from smaller dimensions to abolishing the chauffeur.
- England's new heavy-motor rules allow a 5-tonne load and 6½-tonne tare, set a minimum tyre width of 12.7 cm scaled to axle load and wheel diameter, and cap speeds at 12.8 km/h (19 km/h on rubber tyres).
- Paris's new motor refuse lorry, converted from the watering tank tested in the Bois de Boulogne and owned by M. Bret of the road police service, carries seven cubic metres against five for the horse-drawn cart.
- A four-panel cartoon captioned 'Trasformazione di un automobilista in un automobile', showing a goggled motorist's face evolving stage by stage into the front of a car.
- The excursions and rallies department, opening with the Sardinian convegno at Iglesias and continuing with reports from Alessandria, Aosta, Bordighera, Castelfiorentino, Chieti, Chivasso, Piacenza, Rho, Stroppiana and Venice.
- The third Sardinian Touring rally, 28-30 April 1905, organised by consuls Crotta, Posthoff and Sola: a torchlit procession into Iglesias, the banner unveiled at Monteponi mine with 20 blasting charges, a 200-cover banquet, and a closing visit to the San Giovanni cave and Crotta's estate at Musei.
- Announcement of the Marches regional exhibition at Macerata for August-October 1905, whose nine sections include a national Sport section covering alpinism, motoring, cycling, coachbuilding, shooting, gymnastics and photography, with a large Touring rally during its run.
- Notices of newly founded clubs affiliating to the Touring, including the Unione Sportiva Albenganese, the Veloce Club of Castellanza, the Unione Sportiva of Desio, the Veloce Club Basso Avisio at Lavis, the Auto Club of Lecco and the Unione Sportiva Loanese.
- The Routier Italiano holds its first congress in Milan during the national touring rally, chaired by director-general Edgardo Bonesi of Bologna, agreeing measures to recruit young members.
- Ing. F. Salerno's guide to Ravello, 400 metres above the Amalfi coast: the cathedral pulpit given by Nicolò Rufolo in 1272 and carved by Nicolaus de Bartholomeo de Foggia, the bronze doors of 1179, and the Palazzo Rufolo restored by the Scot Francis Neville Reid.
- Giuseppe Camajori describes the Olivetan abbey in the Sienese crete, founded by Giovanni (Bernardo) Tolomei in 1313, reached by road from Buonconvento, with Sodoma's and Signorelli's frescoes of St Benedict in the great cloister and Fra Giovanni da Verona's inlaid choir and library door.
- Book notices including Annibale Grasselli's Sardinian hunting memoir, the Club Alpino Italiano Milan section yearbook, Francesco Nicotra's Dizionario illustrato dei Comuni Siciliani, Patrizio Patrizi's Il Giambologna, and the cycling poems of the Triestine Touring member Eugenio Garzolini.
- Periodical notes: Max Richter's Geneva-Monte Carlo-Milan cycling itinerary in the Deutsche Radfahrer-Zeitung, the new Pro Valle Camonica and Italia Nostra, Cogliati's illustrated reissue of Stoppani's Il Bel Paese, and L'Automobile's special Touring number.
- Club announcements: the Lago Maggiore steamer company grants Touring members a 50 per cent fare reduction, members are asked to write legibly, and unaffiliated mechanics are warned against painting the T. C. I. monogram on their signs.
- Warning that mechanics in several towns are displaying the T. C. I. monogram without being affiliated; genuine affiliations are listed in the Annuario and announced in the Rivista.
- Obituaries of Cav. Lorenzo Bertolini, founder of the Hôtel Royal at Courmayeur and Sanremo and member of the Touring council; ing. Andrea Brini, consul at Aquila; and Ida Pagani of Caserta, daughter of consul Gustavo Pagani.
- Notices on the rally badges and Sempione medals: distribution against coupons ends on 31 July, some 100 unclaimed rally cards remain at the Milan office, and neither the convegno medal nor the Sempione medal is for sale at any price.
- The Touring's publications column, covering the 1905 Annuario, the Carta dei Confini d'Italia, the railway guides to the Sempione lines and the Guida e Carta della Lombardia.
- The 1,000-page 1905 Annuario is ready, now grouping provinces by region rather than alphabetically, bound in detachable parts, and listing post, telegraph, rail and steamer facilities plus petrol, lubricant and carbide suppliers for 45,000 members.
- Despatch begins of the first sheet of the frontier map made for the Touring by the Istituto Geografico Militare, covering the Maritime, Cottian and Graian Alps from the Colle di Tenda to Mont Blanc, plus Provence, Dauphiné, Savoy and western Switzerland.
- The fourth group of Touring railway guides covers the approaches to the Sempione - Milano-Gallarate-Arona, Torino-Santhià-Arona and Arona-Domodossola-Isella - each with thirty vignettes and a map, at 50 centesimi apiece.
- Bertarelli's new Guida della Lombardia runs to three cloth-bound volumes, over 1,000 pages, 1,000 gradient profiles and 2,300 road sections, with a six-sheet 1:100,000 topographic map now sold separately to members for 6 lire.
- Twenty-six entries were received by the 31 May deadline for the Touring's competition for a practical handbook for road labourers, listed by their mottoes; the road improvement commission will now appoint a jury.
- Motor and motorcycle licence booklets (L. 1.50) and copies of the regulation (L. 0.25) are now deposited at Genio Civile offices in twelve cities, with Cav. Rostain at Turin and Commendator Lattes at Rome handling sales.
- Prizes for members who recruit others: a silver medal for ten new members, gold for a hundred, and a prize draw whose first prizes are a 2½ HP Republic motorcycle from Laurin & Klement shown at the Milan show and a Gritzner luxury bicycle, plus Pirelli tyres and a Star Wizard camera.