The Bearings, Vol 12, No 25
Articles in this issue
- At the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris, veteran Scotsman Lumsden beats the supposedly invincible Welsh idol Jimmy Michael in a 100-kilometer paced match, lapping him three times before Michael quits at the forty-ninth kilometer amid punctures and chain trouble; a 900-meter handicap won by Domain preceded the race.
- From Pomona, California, news that the Ponoma Bicycle Club seeks a 1896 national circuit date, and that transcontinental rider James Hetherington of Belvidere, Illinois has arrived after a ten-week ride largely over railroad ties via St. Louis, the Indian Territory, the Panhandle, Albuquerque, and the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific lines.
- A survey of pre-season team formation: Willie Windle will field a team though he won't race, Arnold, Schwinn & Co. may run a B team alongside John S. Johnson's pros bound for Europe, and Titus, Cabanne, and Murphy hope the National Assembly will reinstate them while Will Evans heads to San Diego to train with the Crimson Rim team.
- London correspondent C. W. Hartung reports the opening of the Olympia's banked nine-lap wood track (built by Peacock Bros.) with mixed men's and women's racing under J. A. Robertson, the close of the Aquarium female tournament, and wretched holiday weather hampering cycling.
- Philadelphia notes: the Century Wheelmen's annual meeting reports a balance over $11,000 and 480 members and elects Thomas Hare president, the Pennsylvania Railroad Y.M.C.A. plans a new third-mile track, and local wheelmen roundly denounce Chief Consul Potter's scheme to take racing control from the L.A.W.
- The Milwaukee Associated Cycling Clubs elect P. H. Cambier president, require the treasurer to post a $1,000 bond, and resolve to elect rather than appoint delegates; a new cement-and-clay track at Athletic Park costing about $3,000 is likely for a national circuit meet.
- Editorial backing the revolt of smaller members of the National Cycle Board of Trade against the fifty-two stockholders who control it, and demanding that incompetent secretary A. Kennedy-Child be ousted ahead of the meeting adjourned to January 22.
- Editorial arguing that bicycle design has reached near-perfection in the diamond frame and that makers should abandon the wasteful annual model 'seasons' that overwork factories in winter and leave them idle in summer.
- Editorial agreeing with Sterling Elliott that the bloomer craze is dying, condemning the indiscriminate wearing of riding costume off the wheel, and advocating instead a rational short skirt with bloomers underneath and out of sight.
- Editorial prompted by 'Harold Quill's' letter, conceding that American wheels equal or surpass English ones but are deficient in chain and sprocket protection (gear-cases) and in using lighter road tires than the English.
- From Santa Monica, the Stearns 'Yellow Fellow' record-breaking camp awaits its sextuplet for a Southern Pacific 'blow-out,' Bert Bassett joins the team, and 'Dad' Gleezen blasts Pasadena's 'frosty' people and stingy prizes; correspondent F. Ed Spooner.
- Denver news that Colorado is again pushing E. S. Hartwell for L.A.W. treasurer, regret over W. W. Hamilton's return home from his coast record-breaking, and the Denver Wheel Club's annual election of George M. Scott as president.
- Tom Eck details plans to take John S. Johnson (riding a World wheel) to Europe in late February with Weinig and Pat O'Connor, using a new quint built by Arnold, Schwinn & Co., to attempt a sub-two-minute paced mile before English officials and to meet Michael in Paris.
- Cincinnati's first bicycle show, held New Year's Day at the Y.M.C.A. by C. M. Hayes and Ed M. Moss, drew some 15,000 people but bred ill feeling among dealers over favoritism in space allotment, which grand secretary Tibbits explained as inadvertent.
- Cincinnati League members work to erect signposts and pass an act fining anyone who scatters tacks, glass, or thorns on the highway; M. G. Heintz drafts the bill and local L.A.W. clubs resolve to aid the federal office of road inquiry.
- A humorous regular column in which 'The Growler' and his companions recount cycle-show stories over drinks, notably a bell company's prank of 'silver ring' souvenirs that fooled crowds and even crack rider Eddie Bald.
- Toronto report on the death of seventeen-year-old John Carroll, who fell into a vat of boiling water at the Cleveland Bicycle Co.'s new Toronto Junction factory, plus an account of the Wanderers' Bicycle Club smoker, circus, and cake walk that wiped out the club's circuit-meet deficit.
- L. H. Adams is elected president of the Springfield (Mass.) Bicycle Club in place of D. Edward Miller; the club reports $14,348 in receipts and $12,000 of property, claiming to be stronger than ever.
- Philadelphia: The Bearings criticizes the Racing Board for failing to recommend abolishing Class B or admitting professionals, and reports Chairman Gideon favoring two classes (amateur and professional) and other suggested fee and sanction changes.
- Show anecdotes in which a green Chicago dealer fails to recognize William Herrick of Morgan & Wright and advises him to stick with the firm, and another fast-talking maker fails to recognize Sterling Elliott.
- A roundup of favorable trade opinions gathered at the cycle show endorsing The Bearings' coming change to magazine form, with comments from J. Elmer Pratt, C. A. Wright, Augustus Brunner, the Fowler Cycle Mfg. Co., and others.
- H. C. Tillotson secures the Hub of Chicago, run by Henry C. Levi, as agent for the Union Cycle Mfg. Co.'s Union Crackajack, with J. C. Nichols engaged to manage and a large order placed; a correction is noted about the Indiana Chain Co.
- The Chicago Cycle Show at Tattersall's closes after drawing over 90,000 visitors; exhibitors declare it a huge success, the 'ice under the floor' cold complaints are dismissed as a myth, and many exhibits move on to the New York and Denver shows.
- Miscellaneous show notes, including disappointment with the bloomer girls on Friday night, the Chicago Tribune's account of friction between exhibitors and the Cycle Board of Trade, and the 'tricks of the trade' over scarce souvenir buttons.
- An account of the unprecedented daily-newspaper coverage of the Chicago show, naming reporters such as 'Mort' MacFarland, C. G. Percival, and Arthur N. Jarvis, with over a dozen typewriters running and lengthy mentions given each exhibit.
- Technical review of '96 machinery, noting radical changes in crank and crank-shaft construction and divergent tandem designs, with detailed descriptions of novel framing such as the United States Special's D-shaped tubing and spring-steel fork crown.
- Short show items: billiard-table maker Moses Bensinger may enter cycle manufacture, the Viking exhibit in seven Auditorium rooms did well, the Sterling Works closed its Kenosha factory to bring 500 employees, and women fainting in Friday's crush thinned the closing-night crowd.
- Fred Titus, reported to have signed with the Syracuse Cycle Co., says he will give up regular circuit racing to open a wheel store in New York and push the Syracuse, riding only for records and at long distances at which he is strongest.
- Cadiz, Ohio: Scotts' Sons, inventors of the 'cord and groove' tire patent bought by Dunlop, devise a stiffening member (rubber or steel wire in canvas) cemented inside the inner tube to ease fitting and prevent damage, with a cementless tire attachment also nearly complete.
- The Whitman Saddle Co. of New York takes control and management of a prominent New York-state bicycle maker; best-grade machines will be branded Whitman at $100 and medium grades Patriot at $75, with tricycles at $150.
- London correspondent 'Harold Quill' argues that American and English bicycles are of equal grade, urges fair mutual criticism, and contends the American roadster's chief weakness is the lack of an indispensable gear-case.
- A review of elaborately produced 1896 bicycle catalogues collected at the Chicago show, including the Adams & Westlake 'Adlake' Corsican travel letter, the Remington Arms history, the Brownie-illustrated Wolff-American book, and the Winton Bicycle Book.
- Philadelphia: the Frank M. Dampman Cycle Co. displays its own-make Brandywine wheel (men's $50, ladies' $55) as a side line to its $100 Dampman and the Falcon it agents, having built a brisk trade since starting manufacture only the previous year.
- The Indiana Bicycle Co. leases 339 Broadway to open a New York wholesale distributing branch for Waverley bicycles and parts, placing it under W. T. Gardner, formerly the company's auditor of branch stores.
- Los Angeles city trade column reporting three new stores on Cycle Row, including H. O. Haines switching from the March to the Czar, E. S. Crippen taking the Avery and Freeman line, and L. S. Benjamin opening the Humber Cyclery.
- London correspondent on a record Christmas bicycle trade among the moneyed classes, the collapse of the Pneumatic Skate Co., denial of a rumor that Pope was buying the American rights to the Simpson lever chain, and a flimsy German wooden cycle-frame at the Stanley show.
- A description of the Perfection automatic rim-drilling machine by Perkins & Co. of Grand Rapids, which drills and counter-sinks wood rims for spokes in one revolution in under forty seconds using a novel scroll chuck and self-gauging drill.
- The Manhattan Brass Co. of New York introduces the twelve-ounce solid-brass Sunlight vapor lamp, claimed to be jar-proof, soderless, and to burn eight hours on benzine-soaked cotton, the firm having lately specialized in bicycle lamps.
- Toledo trade column on makers heading to the New York show, Snell Cycle Fittings' factory expansion and tube-mill scheme, the Toledo Mfg. Co.'s new 'Lark' ladies' wheel, and an interview with 'Viking' maker Alvin Peter about his 1896 plans and advertising stunts.
- Toronto: the Canadian Cycle Board of Trade retains the twelve-month guarantee clause for 1896, foresees record demand with a cheaper $75 grade, notes H. A. Lozier & Co. plans to make tubing, and reports J. & J. Taylor pushing the Dayton wheel.
- Results of the Robinson Home Trainer races run all week in the annex of the Chicago Cycle Show, with F. G. Barnett, A. E. Irons, and J. C. Roha among the record-setters and Nicolet beating Lee Richardson in a fancy-riders' run-off.
- A. G. Spalding wires sanction for the Denver Cycle Show at Coliseum Hall on February 4-8; nearly all spaces are sold and the same exhibits seen at Chicago are expected to appear.
- A nationwide directory column of trade developments, listing newly incorporated firms, tube mills, and dealers taking up bicycles in dozens of cities from Albany and Baltimore to Los Angeles and Galveston.
- A write-up of the 'Security' wall bicycle holder by the Westcott-Jewell Co. of Seneca Falls, N.Y., an embossed-wood support with folding wrought-steel clasp arms that lock the wheel, occupy no floor space, and double as a cleaning stand.
- New York: the National Cycle Board of Trade's annual meeting adjourns to January 22 without business amid suppressed conflict over Kennedy-Child's electioneering for Gormully; Kirk Brown's circulated letter proposes redistributing capital stock to one share per firm to broaden membership.
- Charles Davis, Thomas P. Egan and partners consolidate the Lodge & Davis, A. J. Fay & Egan, and Laidlaw machine-tool interests into the Davis & Egan Machine Tool Co. of Cincinnati, a 2,000-employee concern making tools for locomotives, bicycles, and more.
- Cleveland: the Association Wheels' New Year's Day cycle show draws a large crowd with most prominent makers exhibiting, fancy riding and polo by Sid Black and Jack Hazleton, and a snowbound century run by the Cleveland Wheel Club.
- Buffalo: the Spaulding Machine Screw Co. of Kensington, makers of bicycle fittings, makes a general assignment to John R. Kiem; liabilities are put at $150,000 against $250,000 assets, the failure forced by T. H. Spaulding's New York collapse.
- The Windle Cycle Co. of Worcester, Mass. scores a hit at the Chicago show with its secret 'onyx finish,' a non-enamel, unscratchable bicycle finish offering a hundred color variations, with the factory running day and night to fill dealers' orders.
- Springfield, Mass.: a polishers' strike at the Overman Wheel Co.'s Chicopee Falls works may bring an organized-labor boycott of Victor bicycles; the Central Labor Union votes $250 to the strikers, and Edgar J. Ouilet wins a $7,062 verdict against Overman.
- A miscellany of trade items, including racing man Teddy Allsup's marriage, the John Shillito Co. stocking Dauntless wheels, L. C. Jandorf's large Czar and March-Davis order, riding-school openings, and Stearns staff bound for the New York show.