The Bearings, Vol 11, No 10
Articles in this issue
- John S. Johnson, the record-breaking cyclist, is arrested in Syracuse at the instigation of E.C. Stearns & Co. to prevent him breaking his contract and racing in France; he is held on $5,000 bail with trainer T.W. Eck's help, then later tells Henry Goodman he will not turn professional regardless of the court's decision, while Oakland, Cal. clergymen petition to allow cyclists on residential sidewalks.
- Allan Jones of the Garden City Cyclers lowers the world's one-third-mile record on San Jose's new track, endorsed as the fastest in existence by Eddie Bald, Otto Ziegler, and Asa Windle; the Garden City Cyclers hold a ladies' night and a smoker for eleven hundred guests, and Annie Londonderry arrives in San Francisco two months ahead of her globe-girding schedule.
- The Waltham track is uncovered and ready for a new metalithic backstretch; Sterling Elliott mounts a novel local consul recruitment drive for the L.A.W. Massachusetts division and lobbies on a theater-hat obstruction bill; Tom Varick will open the Varick Bicycle Park in Manchester, N.H. on May 30.
- Milwaukee champion Walter C. Sanger, recovering from illness that cost him forty pounds, strongly endorses a three-class L.A.W. racing system that would include professionals; Martin C. Rotier of The Pneumatic and Milwaukee Wheelmen racing board chairman Henry P. Andrae offer contrasting views.
- Minneapolis wheelmen successfully move to block a G.A.R.-backed bill banning bicycle races on Memorial Day, with constitutional lawyers declaring it unenforceable; a paving exposition opening in the city draws wheelman interest in improved streets.
- The editor comments on a chain-letter scheme from Denver L.A.W. worker E.S. Hartwell to fund free hospital beds for injured wheelmen, publishing Hartwell's own admission that it raised only ninety cents while accumulating books to record the expected billions.
- Extended editorial debate in which Irvine F. Strauss of Denver argues the L.A.W. should remain strictly amateur and purge Class B professional riders, while the editor interpolates sharp rejoinders throughout; ex-L.A.W. president Luscomb's pro-professional speech at the M.A.C.C. banquet and a letter from Worcester's Bert R. Livermore add further voices.
- Review of Frances E. Willard's "A Wheel within a Wheel" (Fleming H. Revell, Chicago), describing the W.C.T.U. leader's account of learning to ride "Gladys," the bicycle gifted by Lady Henry Somerset, as a moral tonic for women rather than a practical cycling manual.
- A Steve Brodie-themed smoker is held at the Detroit Wheelmen's hall; L.A.W. Racing Board Chairman Gideon appoints veteran cyclist A.T. Allan as Michigan's official handicapper; J.P. Bliss confirms he will race this season; the Hilsendegen annual twenty-five-mile Belle Isle road race is set for August 3 with $5,000 in prizes.
- Resort proprietor E.L. Langstaff of Castalian Springs, Miss. has built a quarter-mile banked track suitable for 2-minute riding, announcing a race meet May 6-8 and training facilities with hot and cold baths for southern cyclists.
- Miss Kate Helmke, a teacher at the Missouri School for the Blind in St. Louis who lost her sight in early childhood, has learned to ride a modified tandem with an attendant in front and is frequently seen on St. Louis boulevards.
- Yale student Capen Gilmore of Rutland, Vt. sustains possibly fatal head injuries when thrown from his wheel on a rough road at Woodbridge, Conn.; Springfield, Vt. will revive bicycle races at its annual cattle show.
- University of Pennsylvania riders begin outdoor training under Trainer Bryan for the 1895 season; an Asbury Park national circuit meet committee raises $10,000; O.S. Bunnell plans a Pennsylvania-New Jersey circuit of electric-light race meets; Philadelphia Ball Park is planning a new concrete cycling track with 16,000-seat capacity.
- G.A.R. members push a Minneapolis bill banning bicycle races on Memorial Day; wheelmen Colie Bell and D.B. Holcomb lobby legislators and find the bill will fail on constitutional grounds; most Grand Army posts have not formally endorsed the measure, and the C.W.C. road race will proceed on Decoration Day.
- The spring county tour to Clayton via Old Orchard and Webster Groves is expected to draw 250 riders with a souvenir medal; the Forest Park Road Race Association cedes the annual road race to the Associated Cycling Clubs; note on the death of E.C. Meacham, president of the Meacham Arms Co.
- At the third annual M.A.C.C. banquet in New York, ex-L.A.W. president Charles H. Luscomb strongly advocates admitting professionals to L.A.W. membership; General Nelson A. Miles praises cycling at the Metropolitan Bicycling Co.; a New York-to-Philadelphia double century run for June 22-23 and the N.Y.A.C. annual bicycle dinner are reported.
- Baltimore road records are expected to fall in 1895 due to intense dealer competition; three race meets are planned including the Century Cycling Club sealed handicap May 18; the Thirteen Cyclers hold an "Ananias" yarn-telling gathering at which C.W. Rhodes wins the prize; J.P. Bliss will not appear in "The Human Race."
- Albert Mott's weekly Baltimore road riding group is described, including their discussions of why cyclists climb hills more easily at night than by day; the article chronicles how the Clifton Wheelmen campaigned successfully for incorporating the Johns Hopkins estate into Baltimore as Clifton Park.
- Cleveland's plan for the Cleveland Athletic Club and bicycle clubs to jointly improve the city's only convenient track collapses when the Cleveland Wheel Club refuses the proposed terms; the club is now exploring sites for building its own third-mile track.
- M.H. Hamlin of Greenville, Pa., now 74 and weighing 210 pounds, began riding at age 70 on a Springfield ratchet safety, suffered a dislocated shoulder and broken wrist learning, and is now considered the most expert rider in town, still swearing by his bicycle.
- New records certified by the Century Road Club of America include T.W. Rae's 10,600-mile South Dakota annual record, E.S. Shenkenberger's 11,165-mile Indiana annual record with 36 centuries, and J.C. Knowles's 63 centuries in New York for 1894.
- A brief poem by Doctor Turner advising women cyclists to ride but not race is translated literally into French; also notes cycling's growth in Spain with new tracks at Madrid, Barcelona, and other cities.
- Extended feature based on a personal visit to world cycling champion Arthur A. Zimmerman at his home in Freehold, N.J., describing his domestic life with brother-in-law Joe McDermott, his old Star bicycle on which he first beat Willie Windle, a dinner at his father's Manasquan hotel, and humorous stories about encounters with foreign reporters.
- H. Darwin McIlrath and his wife will leave Chicago April 10 on 22-pound Fowler bicycles fitted with Palmer tires to ride around the world via Japan and across Asia, following the route taken by the late Frank Lenz.
- Satirical column mocking Thomas Stevens's improbable Tibetan adventure tales; argues that the bicycle has yet to achieve literary standing comparable to the war horse in "Sheridan's Ride" or the locomotive in "Dombey & Son"; vows to arrest any returning All-American Mexico tour member who tells fairy tales about the trip.
- Humorous fiction in which a wealthy American heiress rejects a French baron's ancient title and family jewels one by one until, as a last resort, he reveals he holds the world's steam-paced mile record at 1:01⅝, at which point she accepts his proposal.
- The Bearings editorial cautions against purchasing road bicycles lighter than 20-21 pounds, arguing that while the magazine championed lightweight wheels from the start, further reductions now require removing structurally essential material rather than superfluous parts.
- Washington D.C. correspondent reports Treasury Department statistics: $17,800 in dutiable bicycle cement imported last fiscal year, mainly from Germany and Great Britain; the Treasury's general appraisers also reappraise Mannesmann steel cycle tubes at reduced discount terms.
- The Cycle Board of Trade announces two cycle shows for January 1896: one at Madison Square Garden in New York and one in Chicago managed by the National Cycle Exhibition Co., with all member manufacturers bound not to exhibit elsewhere.
- Walter Burnham reports to the New York executive committee on proposed initiatives including a new trade handbook, cooperation with the L.A.W. on anti-cycling legislation, standardized prize bicycle terms, and a uniform contract system for expert riders.
- A national shortage of bicycle steel tubing is reported, with suppliers Roger B. McMullen & Co., Parkhurst & Wilkinson, Palmer Pneumatic Tire Co., Morgan & Wright, and American Dunlop Tire Co. all quoted on a crisis in which demand outpaces mill output by sixty days.
- Salt Lake City bicycle dealers including M.R. Evans, the Western Hardware Co., the Salt Lake Cycle Co., and Browning Brothers are all opening riding academies for the 1895 season.
- Pope Mfg. Co. opens the Columbia Riding Academy in the Second Regiment Armory on Michigan Avenue; Sieg & Walpole opens a school at 293 Wabash Avenue; and Frank Fowler prepares a school on the top floor of the Hill Cycle Mfg. Co. factory at 144 West Washington Street.
- Comprehensive survey of the New York and Brooklyn cycle trade finds unprecedented demand with dealers unable to keep pace: Humber & Co. has only one American Humber on hand, while the American Bicycle Co., Park Row Cycle Co., Metropolitan Bicycling Co., and dozens of others report orders far exceeding supply of all popular makes.
- Feature on Frank Mossberg of Attleboro, Mass. and his Develine siren whistle, which disrupted the New York and Boston Stock Exchanges and is now the subject of proposed banning ordinances in Chicago; followed by Washington D.C. trade notes on the District Cycle Co., cycle detective B.E. Dakin's theft arrests, and the Washington Cycle Board of Trade pricing rules.
- Detroit dealers cannot keep pace with unprecedented public demand; the Hilsendegen bicycle show at the Detroit Wheelmen's hall drew 1,300 daily attendees across three days; dealer Geo. Hilsendegen hosts a trade dinner for twenty-nine representatives at the Cadillac Hotel.
- Technical article from the Iron Age describes three ways to specify a custom handle-bar curve to a repairer and two bending methods: filling the tube with rosin then bending cold, or heating with a Bunsen flame and bending over a pine-and-asbestos form as practiced at Pope Mfg. Co.
- Knoxville's bicycle trade is booming with hardware firms adding cycle departments and a new track under construction; W.P. Biddle's second annual road race is set for July 4; a new city ordinance will require bells and a 10-mph limit while mandating that vehicle drivers give wheelmen half the road.
- Brief trade notices from across the country including Leavenworth, Westboro Mass. (Humber Limited doubling capacity), Ansonia Conn. (new bicycle stand invention), and dozens of other cities reporting new agencies, store openings, business changes, and manufacturers seeking dealers.
- Atlanta's hilly terrain and granite paving limit cycling but dealers are active; the W.D. Gash Co. holds Stearns agencies across five southern states; the Lowry Hardware Co. handles Columbias and Ramblers; about 2,000 wheels are in the city with 400 sold last season.
- Chattanooga has excellent gravel pikes, about 1,500 wheels in use, and an unusual density of dealers; the Graham Cycle Co. and Morgan Cycle Co. lead the trade; a new firm in Decatur, Ala., Littlejohn & Malone, plans to combine bicycle sales with building a half-mile track.
- W.M. "Pop" Brewster is unanimously elected president of the Philadelphia Cycle Board of Trade; the Hart Cycle Co. reports selling 40 Columbia wheels in a single Saturday; Garden & Brewster successfully sells Crescent wheels on weekly payments; R.J. Walker & Co. opens at Tenth and Arch with Eclipse and Wilhelm bicycles.
- The number of St. Louis cycle firms has doubled since last season, with new entrants including the St. Louis Cycle Co. (building its own St. Louis wheel), Tidd-Rugg Cycle Co. handling the Wolff-American, and Hyman & Davis with March and National brands; a new cycle paper, The Pedal, launches under Jos. N. Weyers.
- Notice recommending The Cyclist's Handbook (American Wheelman Publishing Co., New York), a 10-cent guide for racing men covering training methods, records, and instructions for running race meets.