The Bearings, Vol 12, No 1
Articles in this issue
- Columbus, Ohio, July 27 dispatch on the Columbus Wheel Club's national circuit meet: Arthur Gardiner beats a record eighteen-man field, including E. C. Bald and F. J. Titus, to win the mile open, Class B, in the largest scratch field of the season.
- Allentown, Pa., July 27 dispatch on the rain-shortened meet of the Allen Wheelmen at Manhattan Park, where Reading's C. W. Krick swept both the half-mile and one-mile open events.
- Virginia City, Nev., dispatch describing the first underground bicycle trip in the region, made through the Sutro Tunnel on Ramblers by traveling salesman C. C. Hopkins, Rambler agent William Cann Jr. and his wife, and a newspaper man, in 104-degree heat.
- Newark, Ohio, July 27 report on the Newark Cycle Association's meet at the ancient mound-enclosed half-mile track, where Bald and Gardiner watched each other so closely in the half-mile open that Otto Ziegler slipped past both to win, while C. M. Murphy took the mile open.
- St. Louis, Mo. dispatch reporting Racing Board Chairman Gideon's permanent suspension of four Victor Cycling Club riders — J. F. Barsaloux, Will Gardiner, George Stork, and Joseph Laux — for unsanctioned Sunday racing, plus notes on the club's upcoming Daylight Parade.
- Paris, July 19 report on the Buffalo track's Grand Prix du 14 Juillet, in which the American Banker was upset by Mercier in a semi-final scramble, clearing the way for England's Barden to beat Jacquelin in the final.
- Omaha, Neb., July 27 account of the University Club's summer meet, featuring an exhibition quarter-mile by the 502-pound "Baby" Bliss on a 24-pound America and wins by Frederickson in the half-mile, mile, and ten-mile opens.
- Salt Lake City, Utah, July 24 dispatch on the tri-state meet at Becks Hot Springs track, where California's Wells set a half-mile state record of 1:03 4/5 and fifteen-year-old "Little" Jensen rode an unpaced mile within two-fifths of a second of the Class A world record.
- San Francisco, Cal., July 27 dispatch on Editor Ravlin's plan for a new Pacific Cyclist racing circuit through thirteen northern California towns, from Stockton and Sacramento to Oakland and San Jose.
- Editorial arguing that Toledo, backed by a $10,000 guarantee fund and central location, deserves the League of American Wheelmen's next national meet over larger eastern cities.
- Editorial recounting how Emporia, Kansas's crackdown ordinance against wheelmen backfired when the mayor ordered it strictly enforced, hauling the daughters of prominent citizens like bank president Maj. Calvin Hood into police court and turning the town's wheelmen into a nightly protest circus.
- Editorial rebuking an unnamed Atlanta minister's newspaper crusade against wheelwomen who wear bloomer costumes, arguing that scripture prescribes no particular dress for women.
- Indianapolis, Ind., July 29 item: E. S. Aker won the seventy-five-mile road race to Mathews despite breaking down three times, finishing on a borrowed 17-pound Munger after starting on a Waverley.
- Brief report on the Monmouth, Ill. race meet, where Sam Cox won the quarter-mile open and C. V. Dasey, A. E. Wood, and M. Nelson placed in the mile open for a purse of unset diamonds.
- Mansfield, Ohio, July 29 report on a meet drawing 7,000 spectators, highlighted by hometown favorite Clinton R. Coulter's paced exhibition mile in 1:55 3/4 and Arthur Gardiner's stretch-run win of the $450 piano in the mile open over Bald and Pye Bliss.
- New York, July 27 account of the rain-hit Manhattan Beach meet where Class B rider A. W. Porter made his debut as a professional, sweeping both heats of the half-mile professional race.
- Lynn, Mass., July 27 report on the reopened Glenmere track, where John S. Johnson's illness forced substitute Weinig off the course and left Harry Tyler to beat Walter Sanger in the five-mile professional championship in an American record 11:39 3/5.
- Roundup of Chicago's Saturday club road races, led by the Douglas Cycling Club's race for colored riders on the 55th Street boulevard, where Indianapolis's "Major" Taylor won the time medal in 27:52, plus the J. V. Farwell Co. employees' race and the Lincoln Cycling Club's souvenir century run to Waukegan.
- Steubenville, Ohio, July 25 report on the Steubenville Athletic Club's diamond tournament on its hilltop track, where Arthur Gardiner lowered the half-mile track record to 1:01 1/4 and narrowly outdueled E. C. Bald in a one-mile open some spectators scored the other way.
- Dayton, Ohio, July 30 report on the national circuit meet before 8,000 spectators, where Gardiner, Ziegler, Murphy, and Titus split the day's races and Otto Ziegler upset the favorites in the half-mile open.
- Tecumseh, Mich., July 25 dispatch on a ten-mile road race won by F. W. Holmes of Kalamazoo and an afternoon of track races in which Canadian Fred Loughead dominated, with the promoters already angling for a national circuit date.
- Report that George W. Wolfe, checked by The Bearings' own postal-card system at eighty-four points along the route, rode from Chicago to New York in 6 days, 3 hours, and 5 minutes, breaking "Letter Carrier" Smith's record by forty-five minutes.
- New York, July 27 roundup covering a new bicycle militia company forming under Capt. Charles P. Stambach, the New York Herald's August 14 ice-fund tournament at Manhattan Beach, and local race meets at Orange, Patchogue on Long Island, and Flushing.
- Preview of the National Cycle Exhibition Co.'s five-day indoor tournament at Chicago's new Coliseum, October 9-12, on an $8,000 quarter-mile board track with an unprecedented prize list including a 24-hour Class B race.
- Syracuse, N. Y., July 29 dispatch reporting rumors that a Boston tire maker's payments to Class A riders will bring Chairman Gideon's suspensions to Syracuse and Buffalo, alongside Syracuse's bid against Toledo for the 1896 L.A.W. national meet and a denial that M. F. Dirnberger Jr. has left the racing team.
- Indianapolis, Ind., July 28 item on twenty-year-old Jessie Robinson's planned August 10 departure from Chicago on a diamond-frame wheel for a 3,000-mile ride to Mexico City, requiring seventy-nine miles a day through Texarkana, San Antonio, and Monterey.
- Rochelle, Ill., July 25 report that Chicago's G. E. Bicker lowered the local track record from 2:15 to 2:03, while Cleveland of Harrison won the day's fifteen-mile road race.
- Prize-winning reader letter by W. O. Thomas of Milwaukee lamenting the scarcity of road guideboards around that city and citing Wisconsin's statute requiring town chairmen to erect and maintain them.
- Reader essay by Dwight B. Lee arguing that riders should educate themselves on bicycle mechanics rather than trust manufacturers' advertising claims alone.
- Reader essay by Fred'k G. Macgurn prescribing training rules for young racers — sponge baths, eight hours' sleep, no scorching in cotton — to avoid overtraining injuries.
- Letter from L. E. Jones of Davenport, Iowa challenging Chairman Gideon and the L.A.W. over whether Class B professionalism betrays the League's amateur, good-roads mission.
- House notice announcing three $50 reader-writing contests — for the best short paragraph, the best mechanical article, and the best article on road salesmanship — with weekly $5 paragraph prizes starting June 28, 1895.
- Profile of Frank Wenter's new Gladiator Cycle Works, opening at 109-115 West 14th Street, Chicago in a converted furniture factory with machinery for 5,000 wheels; Wenter, president of the drainage board, also touts using excavated canal stone for road-building.
- Weekly patent digest listing six new bicycle patents — including Ernest W. Young's pneumatic tire (assigned to Morgan & Wright) and Henry and Frederick Mesinger's saddle — plus a trademark registration for the Zimmerman Mfg. Co.'s "Zimmy."
- Item on Stearns team rider L. A. Callahan, who waived his handicap to start from scratch and still won the $600 piano for best time in the Detroit Wheelmen's twenty-five-mile handicap road race over the Belle Isle course.
- Note on the Newton Rubber Works of Newton Upper Falls, Mass., introducing the "Straus Special," a slower but far less puncture-prone tire aimed at riders who care nothing for speed.
- Reprint of a testy letter from the St. Louis Refrigerator & Wooden Gutter Co. pressing E. C. Stearns & Co. to finally name a chairman for the long-delayed arbitration of its aluminum-versus-steel frame tests.
- Description of the Manhattan Brass Co.'s new Cyclops lamp, guaranteed not to blow out, smoke, or overheat and able to burn eight to ten hours on kerosene without trimming.
- Notes that Indiana Bicycle Co. superintendent W. S. Spratt is leaving for the Marion Cycle Works and that Pope Mfg. Co.'s New York branch manager Elliott Mason is expected to depart, following W. D. Osgood's replacement of S. Frasick at the Brooklyn branch.
- Houston, Tex., July 27 trade feature surveying the booming 1895 Texas cycle trade, profiling Galveston dealer W. F. Stewart's push for the Remington and Houston's Wilson, Eyers & Co., which sells Stearns, Sterling, and Falcon wheels.
- New York, July 27 dispatch on A. G. Spalding & Bros.'s new uptown headquarters rising on 42nd Street under general manager George R. Bidwell, and Singer Sewing Machine Co. president Frederick G. Bourne's denial that Singer will enter bicycle manufacturing.
- San Francisco, Cal., July 27 report that the Pope Mfg. Co. is building a large cyclery near Golden Gate Park and that a newly organized Western Premier Cycle Co. will take over the Pacific coast Premier agency.
- Profile of John C. Bowe's election to the presidency of the Syracuse Cycle Co., crediting his "Big Three" agents — the Shapleigh Hardware Co., Supplee Hardware Co., and Farwell, Ozmun, Kirk & Co. — with an order for 10,000 Crimson Rim wheels.
- Philadelphia, Pa., July 28 dispatch on race promoter O. S. Bunnell's plan to advertise his meets with an illuminated trolley-car display for dealers selling the Fowler, Humber, Falcon, and Eclipse lines.
- Note on the new Seamless Structural Tube Co. of New York, which will make bicycle tubing with thickened, taper-gauge ends for stronger, reinforcement-free frame joints.
- Profile of the new Sieg & Walpole Mfg. Co. plant at Kenosha, Wis., built for 15,000 Windsor bicycles, tracing founder Mr. Sieg's rise from Chicago's cycle row since 1885 to his partnership with W. R. Walpole.
- Description of inventor Mr. Holson's castor-oil, centrifugal-force speed indicator, soon to reach the market.
- Trade-name dispute note: the March-Davis Cycle Co. has sued former partner A. R. March over his new A. R. March Mfg. Co. using the "March" name on bicycles, while also clarifying that its real San Francisco agent is J. G. French, whose Class B team includes Billy Burke, Casey Castleman, and Floyd McFarland.
- Chicago trade gossip column noting that boxer James J. Corbett and 508-pound "Baby" Bliss both ride an America, Ralph Temple's 4,500-wheel contract for next season, and Munger Cycle Co.'s reorganization with $100,000 in new capital.
- Investigative feature on a stolen-bicycle ring exposed after San Antonio dealers France & Thiele found suspiciously cheap Ramblers traced to Los Angeles theft victims; ringleader R. F. Seemann was jailed on four Bexar County indictments while accomplice M. B. Palmer remained at large.
- Multi-city trade notes reporting the incorporation of Syracuse's I. A. Weston Co., the American-Dunlop Tire Co.'s planned Newark plant, and Little Falls, N.Y. knitting-machine maker Snyder & Fisher's move into bicycle manufacturing.
- Schedule for the August 24-31 Canadian racing circuit through Toronto, Brantford, Stratford, London, Woodstock, Peterboro, and Montreal, with every prize an unset diamond.
- Report on the White Mfg. Co.'s new hot-blast brazing furnace, which brazes a complete bicycle frame in fifteen minutes at a quarter of the fuel cost of gas.
- St. Louis, Mo., July 29 report on the formation of a local cycle board of trade to recover stolen wheels and share credit information, electing W. P. Laing of the Laing Cycle Co. as president.
- Note that Chicago trick rider Lee Richardson has fitted a Brown-Lipe bi-gear to his Monarch trick wheel to perform new stunts, including pedaling backward while the wheel coasts ahead.