The Bearings, Vol 12, No 17
Articles in this issue
- The Bearings reveals that A.G. Spalding has been quietly maneuvering, through League official I.B. Potter, to have the L.A.W. surrender control of cycle racing to the National Cycle Board of Trade at the Baltimore National Assembly, and reports that Spalding has bought over 900 acres near Blue Island and Harvey, Illinois, to build a new Spalding factory and a half-mile cement racing track meant to be the finest in the world.
- World champion A.A. Zimmerman receives a hero's welcome in Australia with crowds of 3,000 at Melbourne station and a civic reception from the mayor, though he loses a five-mile scratch race to the country's champion Parsons at the Adelaide Oval carnival.
- Reminds clubs competing for the Century Road Club of America's banner, awarded for the greatest number of centuries ridden in the year, that claims are due to the road records committee by January 15, 1896, and spells out the eligibility rules, including a 20-mile minimum course and a cap on paved-street or track mileage.
- Sixty to seventy cycling clubs from Philadelphia and neighboring cities join a grand illuminated bicycle parade organized by the Penn Wheelmen, surpassing all previous local parades with Indian costumes, floats, and two rows of bicycle police at the lead.
- Despite Spalding's machinations, Chairman Gideon and other insiders at the Philadelphia meeting insist the League of American Wheelmen has no intention of surrendering its authority over racing next year, whatever classification scheme is finally adopted for amateurs, Class B men, and professionals.
- Philadelphia and New Jersey wheelmen press a campaign against the Pennsylvania Railroad's new charge for carrying bicycles, hoping competition from the Central Railroad of New Jersey (which has pledged not to charge) will force the line to drop the fee.
- In a heavy Massachusetts L.A.W. Division election (3,434 votes cast of 5,700 members), A.D. Peck upsets four-term secretary-treasurer Charles S. Howard, while Elliott and Miller are elected chief consul and vice-consul unopposed and twenty-eight representatives are chosen.
- C.N. Butler is elected Utah L.A.W. Division chief consul by 87 votes to 1 over R.L. Conely of the Zion Wheel Club, after the canvassing board disqualifies all but one of Conely's ballots for having his name printed rather than handwritten.
- The Minnesota L.A.W. Division elects M.L. Knowlton of Minneapolis chief consul, F.L. Hoxsie of St. Paul vice-consul, J.I. Wilson of Winona secretary-treasurer, and F.L. Wilkinson of Duluth representative, all without opposition.
- Of 222 votes cast (ten thrown out) in the Kentucky L.A.W. Division election, J.W. Clendening of Covington is elected chief consul, John M. Cromwell vice-consul, and Owen Lawson of Louisville secretary-treasurer.
- Mrs. M.S. Allen of Worcester rides 169½ miles on a Stearns wheel — out to Boston, on the Yellow Fellow century run to Newburyport and back, and around Boston's parks — before a puncture stops her short of a double century; she has ridden over 3,500 miles this season.
- At the Vincennes track in Paris, George Banker avenges earlier defeats by beating Jacquelin, Edwards, and Mercier in a day of match sprints, closing his European season as its unofficial champion, while at the Winter track "Kid" Michael crushes Bouhours in a fifty-kilometer motor-paced match, lapping him nine times and falling just 158 meters short of the world hour record.
- Minneapolis racing men, angered by the Racing Board's inconsistent shuffling of riders between Class A and B, move to organize an independent professional racing circuit across Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Iowa, with a founding convention planned for February.
- The Century Road Club of America's road records committee, chaired by H.P. Walden, ratifies new state and course records including A.W. Evans's 200-mile and 24-hour New Jersey marks, E.O. Peabody's 15-mile Massachusetts record, and century times by A.B. McDonell, J.R. Dunlop, and C.A. Westcott.
- Editorial denouncing the Spalding-Potter scheme to strip the L.A.W. of control over cycle racing, citing the Board of Trade's handling of cycle shows — favoring big makers and driving up costs for small ones — as a preview of what trade control of racing would look like.
- Editorial attacking the Racing Board rule that credits a fast intermediate time as record only if the rider started specifically for that distance, using Arthur Gardiner's uncredited three-quarter-mile split at Louisville versus C.R. Coulter's slower but officially recognized record as the illustration.
- Editorial on a Board of Trade circular polling members over sanctioning rival cycle shows in Denver and San Francisco, arguing the board has effectively already promised the Chicago show's promoters it would block competing western shows.
- Editorial arguing state L.A.W. divisions should be given more authority over racing within their own territory, subject to the National Board, to keep pace with the growing number of race meets.
- Reports the Wisconsin L.A.W. Division election won by the Brown-Rotier ticket over McArthur-Spicer, a division vote strongly favoring League control of professional racing (367 to 67), and the organizing of an Associated Cycling Clubs of Milwaukee expected to reach about 1,000 members.
- A Paris wheelwoman gives up peddling chestnuts to ride the streets as a "sandwich" advertisement, wearing a cycling costume covered in advertisements after proposing the idea to a cycle builder.
- Reports plans to open the 1896 national racing circuit in California around April 1, the Western Pilgrims' enthusiastic receptions at Los Angeles and San Francisco, new riders Randall, Campbell, and Schefski joining the Stearns and Syracuse teams, Charles "Mile-a-Minute" Murphy's scheme to pace a locomotive on a new asphalt path near Santa Monica, and trainer Asa Windle's plan to retire after 25,000 miles on the circuit this season.
- London correspondent C.W. Hartung reports Gamage and Simpson meeting to arrange terms for their $5,000-to-$500 wager over Simpson's lever chain, still undecided between match-style and time-trial racing, plus roundup items including Mrs. Grace's record rides from Hitchin and London to Coventry and a preview of the Stanley Show's horseless carriages and motor tricycles.
- The newly formed Atlanta Bicycle Club details its programme for Wheelmen's Day at the Cotton States and International Exposition, including an illuminated parade, a race meet on a new exposition track, and a banquet at the Kimball House.
- Washington, D.C. military cyclists prepare a relay race carrying a dispatch from General Ordway to General Miles in New York on November 20, expected to take about twenty-four hours over relay stages of ten to thirty miles.
- A Louisville correspondent reports Arthur Gardiner is recovering from a mild bout of typhoid fever that will end his season, recounts a dispute over lost prize ribbons at the Blue-Ribbon meet that escalated into a fistfight between Crooks and Weinig, and notes Willie Windle's team departing without record attempts and the Barnes and Humber teams' plans to leave for Nashville and the west.
- At Louisville, Peter J. Berlo sets a world two-mile paced record of 3:43⅗ behind a quintuplet and quad, C.R. Coulter trims the three-quarter-mile standing-start record, and A.F. Senn sets new unpaced marks for five through twenty-five miles and the hour.
- Louisville racing men report a rash of thefts from their quarters, including Willie De Cardy's diamond pin and two of Tom Eck's rings, prompting F.T. Lyman to swear out search warrants against Seavey and James Johnson, though a search turns up none of the missing items.
- A New York correspondent reports League president A.C. Willison appears to be angling for a second term by shifting the National Assembly from Baltimore to a western city such as St. Louis over the objections of Chief Consul I.B. Potter, and rounds up other New York items including the Michaux Club's first indoor ride and dangerous indoor track racing at the Twelfth Regiment armory.
- Buffalo wheelmen press ahead with fundraising, led by the Buffalo Express, for a cycle path to Niagara Falls, clubs prepare for annual election caucuses, and a new Buffalo Bicycle Bowling League is organized with five clubs entering a 28-game series.
- At Denver, W.C. Sanger equals W.W. Hamilton's unpaced mile record of 2:00⅖ after training for two weeks on the track's fast dirt surface.
- A father recounts how his teenage son Ralph, inspired by Sherlock Holmes stories, deduces from wrench marks, bicycle-pedal footprints, and tire tracks that a neighbor's son stole a valise of cash during a land sale, then chases the thief down on a tandem and recovers the money.
- Five-year-old Freddie Beaudry and seven-year-old Harry H. Hitchcock, mounted on Barnes Specials, will follow the 1896 circuit as child exhibition riders rivaling Philadelphia's Benner brothers.
- The Illinois L.A.W. Division's rules committee canvasses the recent election, declaring L.A. Jacquish of Chicago chief consul, John L. Misner vice-consul, and George D. Locke secretary-treasurer, with representatives named from Chicago, Danville, Galesburg, Peoria, and Jerseyville.
- Columbia College's Athletic Union moves to organize an intercollegiate cycling association to regulate college racing contests, appointing a committee to canvass other universities.
- Surveys booming New York trade preparations for 1896, including the opening of the Spalding-Bidwell company's new store with a women's department and padded-wall riding school, new Humber salesrooms, the Stanley Cycle Co.'s new 15,000-wheel-capacity factory, and the Palmer tire's move into production at the Mechanical Fabric Co. of Providence.
- The National Board of Trade of Cycle Manufacturers circulates letters polling members on sanctioning rival cycle shows in Denver and San Francisco, seeking agreement on a uniform product guarantee, and outlining a Spalding-Potter plan for makers to distribute L.A.W. recruitment material in their catalogues.
- Details the new "World" line from Arnold, Schwinn & Co., covering standard and light roadster, ladies', and tandem models built from Mannesmann tubing with a novel one-piece crank shaft and dual-thread bearing cones.
- Holmes & Co. of Boston shows samples of its 1896 knitwear, including a new ladies' cycling sweater.
- A.F. Shapleigh, Jr., president of the A.F. Shapleigh Hardware Co. (western agent for the Syracuse Cycle Co.'s Crimson Rim), is elected president of the St. Louis Cycle Board of Trade.
- The Harden Saddle & Specialty Co. of Toledo introduces the "Daisy" baby carrier, a willow-woven child's seat mounted on the handlebar post with a spring and footrest, alongside its Common Sense saddle.
- Reviews a batch of new U.S. patents including James McNamee's variable-speed mechanism, James Duncan's sprocket speed-up gearing, Gilbert Gundersen's dustproof bearing, a combined pump-and-saddle-post by Horace Blackman and Henry Cone, Lucius Richardson's adjustable handle-bars, and Joel Cross's crank lock, which the Pope Mfg. Co. calls the most practical of its kind.
- A wheelmen's accident insurance company organized at Westfield, Massachusetts, with Geo. M. Hendee as president, will insure both riders and their machines against accidents across five membership classes.
- J.W. Anderson surveys recently patented hand and automatic tire inflators, from double-acting valveless-tire pumps to automatic inflators built into the hub, fork, or rim that maintain pressure as the wheel turns.
- Surveys the fledgling New Orleans cycle trade, hampered by poor roads outside a few asphalt streets, profiling dealers along "cycle row" on St. Charles Avenue including the Jackson Cycle Co.'s showroom and riding school, the Fairbanks Company, and agencies for the Peerless, Monarch, Rambler, and Waverley.
- The Keating Wheel Co. of Holyoke publishes a notice warning dealers that a man named W.M. Valentine is posing as its representative and passing bad personal checks.
- Edward K. Orr exhibits the Standard Cycle Works' six 1896 models — a 22-pound roadster, 16-pound racer, ladies' drop and diamond frames, and two tandems — featuring rock-elm wood rims and a new dustproof barrel hub.
- Iver Johnson's Arms & Cycle Works of Fitchburg, after twenty-five years making wheels under other brands, will sell bicycles under its own Iver Johnson name, having just appointed the Simmons Hardware Co. its western agent for 2,000 machines.
- The Decker Cycle Co. of Worcester is building a chainless six-rider "sextet," designed by W.L. and A.M. Decker, expected to be capable of a mile in 1:25 to 1:30.
- Charles F. Stokes, former president of the defunct Stokes Mfg. Co., becomes a stockholder in the Sieg & Walpole Mfg. Co. and will be closely identified with the Windsor wheel.
- Surveys Peoria's bicycle manufacturers — Rouse, Hazard & Co. (Overland and Sylph, dropping its farm-implement line), the Ide Mfg. Co., the new Peoria Rubber & Mfg. Co., and Kingman & Co. (the Elgin wheel) — plus retailer F.H. Henning & Co.
- W.H. Craig of Lawrence, Massachusetts introduces a lightweight cast-aluminum saddle with automatic pneumatic cushions.
- The Kankakee Mfg. Co. wheel will be finished in maroon-gold, black, or coach blue, with large tubing, tubular hubs, and adjustable, changeable front and rear sprockets.
- Describes the 1896 Kenwood models' tubing, drop-forge barrel crank hanger, reversible handle-bar (giving six shapes), and direct seat-post, noting over 30,000 of the seat-posts already sold.
- The Gormully & Jeffery Mfg. Co. will build the Rambler with a new barrel crank hanger adjusted from the left side, enlarge its tubing throughout, and fit its tire with a wide vulcanized flap to stop inner-tube pinching.
- Adams & Westlake will offer the Adlake in eight styles including two tandems, built with Mannesmann tubing, a Humber-type barrel crank hanger, a clover-leaf sprocket forging, and a new tubular seat-post clamp.
- The Gormully & Jeffery Mfg. Co. opens a winter riding school at the Kadish Natatorium on Chicago's North Side, with a new hardwood floor over the old tank and dressing rooms for both sexes.
- Profiles the W.F. & John Barnes Co. of Rockford, whose upright drill presses, used by the Syracuse, Lozier, Indiana Bicycle, Columbus, and Barnes cycle factories, are in such demand the company can barely keep up with orders, including exports to English bicycle factories.
- E.C. Stearns & Co. insists "sextuplet" is the correct name for its six-seat machine under construction, to join the Yellow Fellow family alongside its quintuplet.
- The Vanguard Cycle Co. of Indianapolis, formerly the Indianapolis Cycle Co., offers an $85 Vanguard roadster and a $105 "Climber" model fitted with a J. & R. changeable-gear hub for hill-climbing, coasting, and theft resistance.
- Roundup of incorporations and closures nationwide, including the McDaniel & Merrihew Cycle Co. (Wilmington), Barr Cycle Clothing Co. (Chicago), the Tidd-Rugg and Knight cycle companies (St. Louis), a new Davis Sewing Machine Co. branch and the $300,000 Durland Riding Academy (New York), and the Glenn Falls Cycle Co.'s new Mystic bicycle.
- The Standard Cycle Works contracts with the newly organized C.H. Sterner Cycle Co. to supply 500 wheels, with Sterner, formerly of Thorsen & Cassady, making the Standard his leader line downtown.
- A Toledo correspondent reports the Central Chandelier Co. entering the bicycle trade to build tandems exclusively, a scheme by Sam Snell and others for a major steel-tube plant, the Toledo Tube Co.'s progress on R.W. Smith's patented locked tubing, and the renaming of the Century Cycle Mfg. Co. to the Arrow Cycle Mfg. Co.
- The Iroquois Cycle Co. of Chicago will distinguish its 1896 model with a translucent purple finish, with applications for agencies pouring in.
- Profiles McKee & Harrington, one of New York's oldest bicycle makers, established on Grand Street nearly twenty years earlier, whose Lyndhurst wheel pioneered wood rims and tool-steel bearings and is preparing to double its 1896 output.
- Describes an E.W. Bliss Co. press built for the Pope Mfg. Co. to bend handle-bars and tubing, with an adjustable table and eccentric pitman adjustment for precision die work.
- Grand Rapids attorney David E. Burns patents an automatic reciprocating spring bicycle seat, now made in limited quantities by the Peninsular Machine Co. and popular with lady riders.
- Julius Andrae & Sons Co. announces it is renaming its "Sunbeam" bicycles to "Calumet" after learning another western firm had already used the Sunbeam name.
- Chicago inventor William J. Busse patents a new ball-bearing design using extra small balls to eliminate the friction of large balls rubbing against each other, cutting the force needed to start a loaded wheel by 60 percent in tests.
- Profiles R.J. Noderer of the Noderer Mfg. Co. of Cleveland, whose sundries line includes bicycle stands, Easy Glide chain lubricant, tire cement and repair outfits, and the new Ohio juvenile wheel.
- The New York jobbers and retailers behind the high-grade Sagamore wheel incorporate to expand their manufacturing.
- Recounts the comic send-off of Morgan & Wright's promotional railcar from Chicago's Michigan Central depot for a tour to Detroit, with trainer "Capt." R.C. Lennie's photograph delayed by a crowd, a 287-pound cook, and a lost boutonniere before the car was caught rolling away.
- The St. Louis Cycle Board of Trade elects A.F. Shapleigh, Jr. president for the coming year and, after the Associated Cycling Clubs balk at a 50-percent profit split for the local show, moves toward running its own February cycle show open only to Board of Trade members.
- The newly formed Eclipse Electric Lamp Co. of Buffalo, capitalized at $100,000 under president T.F. Crean, will bring its oil-free "electric sand" bicycle lamp — twenty ounces, burning six to eight hours, priced at $5 — to market in January.
- The Bridgeport Gun Implement Co. updates its 1896 Star lantern brackets with reshaped steel-wire loops, a new head-mounted brake bracket, and what it claims is the first chamois-lined lantern bracket.
- The Tourist Cycle Co. of Syracuse elects H.E. Maslin president and plans to build 5,000 to 10,000 wheels for 1896, led by a $75 transparent-blue model.
- The 24-year-old Gendron Iron Wheel Co., a pioneer of wrought-iron and children's wheels whose bicycle output now exceeds two-thirds of its million-plus annual production, renames itself the Gendron Wheel Co.
- Roundup of short items including a dispute over L.H. George's disputed 100-mile unpaced road record (credited instead to Alex McDonell on a Viking), Louisville record runs by C.W. Miller (Fowler), S.C. Cox (Crescent), and the Hansen-Nelson Syracuse tandem, and A.W. Gump & Co.'s Dayton store being sold to Wm. F. Haas & Co.