The Bearings, Vol 12, No 11
Articles in this issue
- The Louisville national circuit meet draws criticism for its poor prize list and unfounded newspaper attacks on Morgan & Wright manager McNeil, while the western party bound for California is trimmed to Bald, Cooper, Bliss, Kiser, Murphy, Wells, Terrill and Maxwell. Sims is suspended a second time by Chairman Gideon, trainer Tellam is barred for a year over the San Francisco indoor-meet dispute, and the points table shows Bald and Cooper tied at 125 apiece with Spalding's team back in first place.
- Murphy wins the mile open at St. Louis's Pastime grounds before D. W. Robert of the Racing Board, Bald beats Cooper in the two-mile with his “Cannon Bald” sprint, and Wells outsprints Bliss in the two-mile handicap. Murphy, trainer Young and Robert hold private talks afterward and wire Chairman Gideon asking him to hold off ruling on the suspension charges until fresh affidavits arrive.
- The western circuit party — Bald, Cooper, Murphy, Bliss, Kiser, Wells and Terrill, with Coulter, Ziegler and Gardiner to join later — leaves St. Louis by rail for Denver and on toward the coast via the Denver & Rio Grande and Southern Pacific lines, in a special sleeper covered with advertising.
- A 130-rider century run from Terre Haute to Cayuga and back sees 109 finish despite the last forty-five miles being ridden in heavy rain that left the roads nearly impassable.
- A rare rainless Saturday passes without a club road race, the Columbias lead the Juul-Viking trophy contest after the first three heats, and Westcott and A. E. Smith both fail in fresh attempts on the century and twenty-four-hour road records. Mrs. George Bunker lowers the women's Elgin-Aurora century record to 6:56:00, with Tillie Anderson finishing close behind.
- Mrs. Emma Shaw of the Ideal Cycling Club is fatally struck from behind by a runaway horse near the Garfield Park track after its young rider was thrown; she dies of a fractured skull that evening, her identity established only from her pet dog's collar.
- Chicago's plans for improving Jackson Park call for three bicycle racing tracks — one half-mile and two quarter-mile circuits — plus a large grandstand and a dozen wheelmen's rest shelters around the grounds.
- The Lincoln Cycling Club's directors adopt resolutions condemning Sunday bicycle racing and barring the club's road officers from taking any official part in races held on that day.
- Alfred Klufer wins both the time prize and first position in the Sylph C. C.'s five-mile handicap road race in 13:48 off a 1:30 handicap, with H. White second and A. Rueble third.
- The Cleveland Wheel Club plans to bid for next year's L. A. W. state meet to coincide with the city's centennial celebration, after its October 19 “blue ribbon” meet — conceived to recoup losses from a costly Labor Day race — draws unexpectedly strong entries.
- An editorial rebuts the Referee's response in the ongoing $40-bicycle dispute, accusing it of publishing unsigned letters and planting a distorted story in the Chicago Times-Herald, and reiterates that $40 wheels sold in thousand-lots were never claimed to be high-grade.
- An editorial observes that cycling manufacturing, sales, racing and the trade press are overwhelmingly staffed by young men, since the industry's rapid five-year growth left no time for anyone to grow old in it.
- An editorial welcomes real-estate journals' new claim that cycling boosts suburban property sales, and muses on whether the coming motor vehicle and its “motor sleigh” cousin will ever displace the horse and sleigh in winter.
- A feature on aluminum's falling price (from $6 to 50 cents a pound since 1870) and its growing use in bicycle parts, plus notes on polishing, alloying, and its use in German army cookware and Russian gun-carriages.
- Frenchman Bouhours rides 46.440 km in the hour at Paris's Municipal track, beating Michael's record despite a bad spill that injured several pacemakers; the same day's Velodrome de la Seine card sees Banker win the scratch race from Gougoltz and Anthony, and Gougoltz take the paced ten-mile from Tom Linton after a late Lamberjack-triplet rescue.
- At the Warwick Wheelmen's Wilmington meet, Frank Turner lowers the Delaware mile record to 2:17 in the handicap and W. M. Trott wins the mile open, while Harry Deum takes the ten-mile road race off a four-minute handicap in 32:15.
- Bicycle races at the Nazareth, Pa., fair go on despite a track cut up by earlier trotting races, with riders repeatedly failing to beat the imposed time limits until Arner's and Goodman's times are finally allowed to stand.
- George Hunt wins Herne Hill's Anchor Shield twelve-hour race with 261 miles 1,250 yards, cutting the amateur record, while A. W. Harris smashes British professional records from a half-mile to a mile at Catford. English correspondence also covers a Chester cycle-tax proposal and Frank Shorland's possible 1896 record bid.
- Two state records fall on Salt Lake's improving new track — the half-mile novice in 1:10⅓ and the quarter-mile Class B in :31⅖ — with Weiler winning the Class B mile open easily.
- The Westchester Cycling League's third annual meet at the White Plains county fair draws society crowds; G. A. Robertson wins the half-mile handicap and C. P. Staubach the one-mile handicap from scratch in 2:27⅘.
- William Trumbull sweeps four events at the Canton, Ill., Bicycle Club meet — the mile, half-mile and quarter-mile opens plus the tandem with William Selby — while Selby separately wins the mile and two-mile handicaps.
- T. H. Cummings wins the Class A mile open, half-mile open and two-mile handicap at Red Oak, Iowa, and repeats similar wins at the Creston, Iowa, circuit meet, where Burke Powell takes the quarter-mile open.
- A long essay argues professional racing men are paid employees who owe manufacturers businesslike, gentlemanly conduct on the road, contrasting today's orderly circuit party with past “horse play” that quietly got riders blacklisted by team managers.
- A Washington, D. C., surgeon recounts treating a cycling enthusiast who sealed a spoke-inflicted arm wound with rubber tire cement instead of a bandage, and reports the arm healed perfectly.
- Harley Davidson lowers Toronto's half-mile straightaway record to :53⅘ on Jarvis Street, only for T. B. McCarthy to beat it the next morning in :47 flat over the same course, both timed by Dr. P. E. Doolittle of the Canadian Wheelmen's Association.
- Chairman Gideon tells a Bearings reporter he has received important new evidence in the Cabanne, Titus and Murphy case but declines to reveal its nature, while Philadelphia opinion holds the men will likely be acquitted.
- Claude Doty wins the county championship, one-mile open and two-mile open at the Marion, Ohio, Agricultural Society meet, with Clyde Roberts placing second in two of the three races.
- The C. B. Rice Co. of Oswego, N. Y., maker of the Ontario bicycle, has sold its business to the Oswego Tool Co. and ceased to exist except for liquidation.
- W. W. Hamilton stands to win Morgan & Wright's gold slab prize for the fastest unpaced mile after riding 2:05⅗ on a Syracuse at Denver, unless another rider betters it.
- H. C. Martin and J. J. Gibson of Buffalo buy the plant of the defunct Buffalo Cycle Co. and will employ 100 workmen to turn out 5,000 wheels, with Martin continuing his retail business.
- A feature traces caoutchouc from its discovery in South American and African tree sap through Goodyear's and Hancock's vulcanization processes to the modern manufacture of pneumatic-tire tubes and sheet rubber.
- A humor squib has bloomer-wearing Bessie and skirt-loyal Emma ask young Tommy to judge their dress dispute by drawing pictures, after which Bessie decides she is glad enough to order her own bloomer suit. The scan of this item is badly garbled, so the gist is reconstructed with some uncertainty.
- Inexperienced judges botch several finishes at the Des Moines national circuit meet, forcing a called-off mile open and disputed placings in the quarter-mile, though Murphy is eventually awarded the mile after argument.
- Chicago's Tonk Mfg. Co., previously a piano-stool maker, unveils a bicycle with a hickory-veneer wooden frame patented by inventor P. H. York, claimed to flex back into shape after rough use rather than bending like steel.
- A humorous clubhouse fiction piece has the Æolus Cycling Club's “tourist” recount how fellow member Billy Wenham, smitten by Will Carleton's poem “A Modern Lochinvar” on a Berkshires tour, fell for a farmer's daughter, staged a fake elopement, and was chased down and billed for room, board and a nurse by her family. No printed title survives in the scan for this multi-page serial piece.
- Griebler wins the two-mile open and one-mile handicap at a well-attended Sioux City meet, with McCleary and Mertens also placing in the two-thirds-mile and five-mile handicap events. The printed headline is garbled beyond recovery in the scan.
- Sanger sets new Class B records for the third-mile and half-mile on the Waltham track on October 5, paced by a team of riders, clocking :32 and :50⅔ respectively.
- A Bearings correspondent tours Boston's cycle trade, finding A. J. Faxon & Co. readying its Puritan and Hector lines (a $100-quality wheel to sell at $75) and A. & J. M. Anderson's factory promoting its Transit wheel's dustproof crank-axle bearing.
- An editorial estimates 1896 manufacturers hope to sell 1.25 million wheels but predicts the real figure will be scaled down 20 to 25 percent, warning that undercapitalized dealers extending too much credit risk a repeat of the 1893 shakeout.
- J. C. Bowe forms the Empire Cycle Co. and E. C. Stearns & Co. forms the Tourist Cycle Co., both to build medium-grade companion wheels to the Syracuse and Stearns lines; Stearns's H. E. Maslin previews 1896's $125 “Yellow Fellow” and a new $100 model with 20,000 already ordered.
- The Fowler Cycle Mfg. Co. is installing $200,000 of new machinery and expects to build 17,500 to 20,000 Fowler wheels in 1896, having already ordered material for 17,500 wheels and 15,000 pairs of pedals from the Record Pedal Co.
- The National Cycle Exhibition Co. leases the adjoining Jonathan Clark Building for an extra 6,000 square feet after receiving about thirty more Chicago cycle-show space applications than it had room for.
- London correspondent “Will o' the Wisp” reports a move to buy back the Humber name, a new self-closing-tube company and a disputed “Lever Chain” patent, a nearly 50-percent rise in August cycle exports over 1894, and the Raleigh Cycle Co.'s search for 60,000 more square feet of factory space.
- Charles E. Hadley, former master mechanic for the Overman Wheel Co. and inventor of its resiliometer and dynamometer, becomes mechanical expert for the Indiana Bicycle Co.
- A suspicious early-morning fire destroys the stock side of Gormully & Jeffery's Brooklyn branch on Flatbush Avenue, a total loss covered by only $50,000 insurance; a missing fire-hose nozzle fuels suspicion of arson.
- The New Haven Chair Co. enters the bicycle trade for 1896 under president I. N. Dann and new superintendent George Wood, with a test machine already breaking a New Haven track record by ten seconds.
- W. W. Whitten's Providence firm is expanding its Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut wheel line and sundries jobbing business, and has contracted for the entire output of T. A. Lord's wood-and-maple rims, which survive brutal bend and weight tests undamaged.
- Chicago's Duplex Saddle Co. reports brisk demand for its lawyer-invented Duplex saddle, whose twin concentric steel-wire spring circles distribute a rider's weight and relieve inner-thigh pressure.
- Chicago marble and tile dealers Davidson & Sons enter the bicycle business under manager J. D. Lasley, formerly of the March-Davis Cycle Co., with samples ready within ten days.
- Rochester Machine Tool Works markets its Acme automatic safety engine, fired by natural gas or kerosene, as a safe power source for bicycle-factory lathes and drills.
- New York bicycle maker John McClure & Sons debuts a wheel with reinforced lap-brazed joints and a ladies' model called the Colonial Dame, at a factory with 15,000-unit capacity.
- C. C. Meade, formerly with the Humber-Rover and Monarch companies and most recently Thorsen & Cassady, becomes retail manager for the Sterling Cycle Works and its Michigan, Indiana and Illinois road representative.
- The Yost Mfg. Co.'s Falcon plant at Toledo doubles in value with a new “Factory No. 2,” and the touring Toledo Cadets send the company a testimonial praising the Falcon's durability over rough southern roads.
- A roundup of new bicycle ventures nationwide, including the Worcester Cycle Co.'s planned move to Middletown, Conn. (250 hands) and the Boston Compound Cycle Co.'s new 200-operative factory, plus new firms forming in Toledo, Defiance, Anderson, Milwaukee and Chicago, and Hartford's Pope Mfg. Co. installing a 50,000-pound drop hammer, the largest ever made.
- Chicago's Pond-Cottle Co. names its new nickel-plated lantern the Defender, inspired by Lord Dunraven's America's Cup challenger Valkyrie III, selling at $2.50 in black enamel or $3 nickel-plated.
- John C. Bowe's newly organized Empire Cycle Co. will take over the Syracuse Cycle Co.'s current plant to build a $75-to-$85 medium-grade companion line to the “crimson rim” Syracuse.
- Bicycle racing headlines the Sioux Falls, S. D., state fair; the Class B mile open is voided on a missed time limit, and Martins wins the two-thirds-mile in 1:39 ahead of Mierstein and Gregory.
- Chicago's Adams & Westlake Co. launches its “Adlake” wheel — four men's models, one ladies' and two tandems — from a block-sized factory turning out seventy-five a day.
- The first western cycle show, planned for Denver's Coliseum Hall in February 1896, has already sold over half its space and will open with a complimentary ball at the Brown Palace Hotel.
- San Francisco cycle dealers agree on a stricter model guarantee — refusing free puncture repairs, frame and fork replacements, and post-sale adjustments — to propose to manufacturers and dealers elsewhere.
- Philadelphia correspondence reports Garden & Brewster's Robert D. Garden back at his desk after a bad fall, Charles S. Smith & Co. selling its $50 “Pennant” wheel on reputation alone, and Peerless and Indiana Bicycle Co. representatives scouting a Philadelphia branch or agent.
- Reading, Pa.'s Reading Nickel-Plating & Electrical Co. can't keep up with demand for its eleven-ounce aluminum saddle, now producing 1,000 a day and expecting 200,000 to 250,000 for 1896.
- Chicago's Weiss & Upman introduces the three-sided Weiss Ideal pedal, designed so beginners always catch a usable surface, weighing twelve ounces a pair.
- Toledo bicycle makers, including Lozier, Gendron Iron Wheel, Snell Cycle Fittings and Yost, form the Associated Manufacturers of Toledo, electing J. L. Yost president, to jointly manage labor, materials and shipping.
- The Marion Cycle Co. of Marion, Ind., previews its three 1896 Halladay models, including a particularly handsome ladies' wheel, and plans to add a tandem.
- D. H. Lewis, founder of the American Wheelman trade paper, opens the D. H. Lewis Cycle Co. in Buffalo to sell Peerless and Triumph wheels across five western New York counties.
- The Toledo Mfg. Co. names its new $100 ladies' wheel the Ouida, to be built with large tubing, barrel hubs and a twenty-pound weight, with models ready around October 20.
- The C. J. Smith & Sons Co. of Milwaukee denies renewed rumors that it or its new affiliate, the Smith Mfg. Co., intend to build complete bicycles, insisting both will stick to parts, wood rims and guards.
- F. M. Buckley & Co. of Boston, known for its Brockton foot-brake and toe-clip, expands into saddle making with six new models and a contract for 80,000 waterproofed leather saddle-tops.
- McKee & Harrington consolidates its Lyndhurst, N. J., factory into new combined offices, salesroom and factory space on Grand Street, New York, for its 1896 line featuring 1⅛-inch tubing and adjustable handle-bars.
- Gormully & Jeffery attorney Walter H. Chamberlain circulates notice of T. B. Jeffery's patents covering upturned and “ramshorn” handle-bars, warning that nearly every maker of ladies' wheels may be infringing.
- J. P. Maher, manager of the G. M. Shirk Mfg. Co.'s Philadelphia branch, has built up the Shirk wheel's reputation across Pennsylvania and expects to expand it further in the coming year.
- Frank A. Magowan regains full control of his Eastern Rubber Mfg. Co. and Trenton Rubber Co. mills from receivership in chancery court.
- Hulbert Bros. & Co. finds unexpected interest from physicians after advertising the anatomically designed Mesinger saddle, with medical inquiries convincing the firm that riding-comfort objections have finally been overcome.
- A group led by L. D. Munger backs a new steel tube mill at Worcester, Mass., tied to the Worcester Cycle Co., already equipped with a 600-horsepower engine and rated at 3 to 4 million feet of tubing a year.
- The Racing Board's October 5 bulletin ratifies E. C. Bald's third-mile and mile Class B standing-start records and C. M. Murphy's two-mile competition record, and transfers seven riders, including F. H. Wilson, George L. Seager and C. G. Cabanne, up to Class B.
- A digest of trade notes: Steimal lowers the 100-mile road record to 5:28:00 on a Stearns over the Erie course, Duxbury's San Francisco-to-New York record ride on a Lovell Diamond goes off without a mechanical mishap, and the Sager Mfg. Co. reports fifty-one 1896 contracts covering nearly every high-grade maker.
- Chicago inventor W. W. Green patents a crank mechanism with a stationary axle and pivoted, slotted crank arms that give more leverage on the downstroke than the upstroke, mimicking a walking motion.
- A roundup of newly issued cycling patents, including John W. Bragger's bicycle lamp and lantern, Ansel B. Falk's bicycle coat, Francis Gleason's expansible sprocket wheel, and trademark registrations for “the Smalley” and “Canoe” branded parts.