The Bearings, Vol 5, No 4
Articles in this issue
- Editorial praising the Irish Cyclist for crediting The Bearings as its source while calling out the hypocrisy of English cycling papers that routinely lift content from American papers without acknowledgment.
- The regular column recounts a visit to the Philadelphia Cycle Show with a satirical history of Philadelphia invoking William Penn—including a putative bicycle-riding tradition and a story about Penn's wife declining to clean his muddy machine.
- Reports that the Maryland Division has closed a deal for a quarter-mile oblong track on the Pimlico road, corroborated by a Bearings correspondent in Baltimore.
- Notes that Harvard College will replace the three-mile ordinary race on its collegiate championship schedule with a safety event at the same distance, which The Bearings calls 'rather late in the day.'
- The Derby Cycle Mfg. Co. of Chicago awards Robert W. Evans of Hudson, N.Y. a $25 prize for suggesting the winning number in a ballot to name their new bicycle 'Derby,' selected from over 2,000 entries.
- Dan Canary and W. S. Maltby met at Philadelphia before cycling editors to settle on a referee for their proposed championship contest but deadlocked, with Maltby rejecting Smith, Finley, Hendee, and Higham while Canary rejected Windle; general opinion held Maltby was avoiding competition.
- Clarence Smith of Detroit will organize the largest-ever touring party of up to 200 riders from New York to Washington for the L.A.W. meet, leaving July 9 via Newark, Philadelphia, Gettysburg, and Baltimore, with a hearty invitation extended to ladies.
- The illustrated gossip column notes racing news and club items from across the country, questions who will ride the first century in Chicago, reports Zimmerman's trainer W. B. Troy joining the Riverside Wheelmen of New York, and includes Merrick's poem 'Three of the Seven Ages' satirizing the life cycle of a cyclist from reckless scorcher to tricycle-riding retired champion.
- Multi-topic editorial covering the L.A.W. National Assembly at Columbus: warning against employing C. S. Merrill in the cycle trade, praising Billy Herrick's organizing energy for the Century Road Club, analyzing Isaac B. Potter's legal contributions, explaining the A.A.U. alliance terms and the $150 prize-limit confusion, assessing the Zimmerman amateurism reinstatement, and advocating for the Washington meet to precede rather than follow hot July weather.
- Coverage of the elaborate banquet hosted by The Sporting Life at Philadelphia during the Cycle Show, with extracts from speeches by Col. Albert A. Pope on manufacturing quality and pricing, A. Kennedy-Child on the trials of the cycle salesman, C. W. Fourdrinier on consolidating cycle shows to two per year, Charles R. Overman on the Washington L.A.W. meet, and Kirk Brown on the Wheelmen's Street Improvement Association's election of eight of thirteen endorsed candidates.
- City letters from Australia (new safety and 24-hour records by Warwick and Duff & Scott of Melbourne), Canada (Century Road Club growth, Carman, Wells, and Palmer set to compete in the U.S.), Washington D.C. (pneumatic tire enthusiasm, the Nomad Club's lemon party), Connecticut (New Haven planning a $35,000 combined bicycle and athletic clubhouse), and Illinois (the Illinois C.C.'s twelve-event athletic entertainment and Lincoln-Ravenswood smoker), followed by notes from Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin.
- Profile of Chas. H. Curley of Prairie City, Iowa, one of the state's earliest League members who won the Iowa half-mile and three-mile state championships in 1890-91 before being struck by a runaway horse and sulky at the state fair, having since resettled in Chicago.
- An illustrated floor plan of the Rochester Cycle Show identifies booths for firms including the Rochester Cycle Co., Overman Wheel Co., Pope Mfg. Co., Gormully & Jeffery, and Sercombe-Bolte, with organizers C. B. Braman (president), L. B. Vincent (financial secretary), F. H. Bettys (local consul), and James M. Hamilton (secretary).
- The Bearings' Philadelphia Cycle Show supplement surveys every exhibitor on agencies placed and actual wheel sales, finding the Metropolitan Hardware Co. sold sixty-five wheels and seventeen gross of lamps, the Luburg Mfg. Co. received approximately 500 orders, and the Sweeting Cycle Co. claimed 200 sales of the $100 Belmont plus control of the Texas market.
- Supplement notes on the Philadelphia show cover the home-trainer record broken by Fitler of the Century Wheelmen at 1:23 2-5, High Chief Herrick marshaling nearly 100 Century Road Club members, a chainless safety with an endless-screw shaft drive attracting strong attention, and social incidents including a 200-strong red-necktie brigade formed in under an hour.
- Technical description and drawing of a new pneumatic tire by Brown, featuring a split canvas-lined cover with interlocking edges clamped to the rim by a metal plate; the inner tube can be removed, patched, and reinflated in under one minute without cement or rim wrappings.
- Neil Campbell of the late firm Banker, Campbell & Co. was arrested in New York on charges of obtaining $12,000 worth of wheels from a Philadelphia concern and converting them for cash, while fighting extradition to stand trial in New York.
- A corrective letter from the Humber Cycle Importing Co. states that W. C. Paine & Co. are sole Humber agents for Evansville, Ind., and the Dunham Cycle Co. handle Rovers there, contradicting The Bearings' previous statement naming H. A. Lozier & Co.
- English paper The Cyclist commends both Chicago cycling papers' Christmas numbers, calling The Bearings' lithographic style worthy of the 'Iliffes of America,' while noting The Referee's article on English cycling pressmen reads curiously in Britain as a warning against hearsay evidence.
- Charles Duryea showed at Philadelphia a crescent-section cushion tire in which air is 'set on end' to achieve actual rubber compression rather than mere flattening, using a tubular rim; originally planned for market in 1891 by the Rouse-Duryea Cycle Co. but delayed.
- The regular column's second installment describes two English bicycle salesmen—A. J. Marrett of the Coventry Machinists' Company and Stephen Golder of Humber—visiting Johnson's Corners to place Swift and Humber agencies, and the increasingly fermented half-watermelon they pressed on each successive visiting agent until its condition provoked mutual outrage.
- Reports that a March 8 A.A.U. conference discussed allowing jewelry and clocks as prizes, but lacked a quorum and made no binding changes; simultaneously the A.A.U. proposed omitting cycling from its jurisdiction list, with final action still pending a mail vote or special meeting called by President Perry.
- At the March 12 board meeting in San Francisco, the California Division appointed a committee to draft state highway improvement legislation, instructed Secretary Langton to forward a resolution requesting Mongolians be excluded from L.A.W. membership, and awarded the annual Division meet jointly to San Francisco and Sacramento for July 4.
- The March 18 gossip column notes Zimmerman will train at London's Herne Hill track, Taxis and Zimmerman plan a tandem record attempt, a new burnt-brick Parisian track opens at the Ex-Buffalo-Billeries at Easter, Scottish cyclists have won autonomy from their amateur athletic union, and the Bay City Wheelmen of San Francisco are surveying a quarter-mile elliptical track at Bay District Driving Park estimated at $1,973.
- The Bearings announces two reader contests: the first offers Merrick's $18 pen-and-ink drawing on March 26 to the first postal card correctly identifying the misspelled word 'none' in a previous advertisement; a second contest prizes the first card on April 2 finding the misspelled word 'affect.'
- Editorial arguing that transferring L.A.W. constitutional amendment authority from unwieldy general conventions to the National Assembly would curb the proxy abuse demonstrated at Hartford, since Assembly delegates are better informed, accountable to their Divisions, and unable to manipulate large blocs of members' proxies as convention delegates can.
- March 18 editorial section covers road improvement advocacy citing a Maine newspaper on attracting summer visitors, the questionable trend of racing men entering the trade, a new bicycle canvassing business model, The Bearings' opposition to California's resolution to exclude Mongolians from the L.A.W., the Scottish Cyclist's inconsistent amateurism proposals, and England's Road Records Association ruling not to legislate against wind-assisted road records.
- Editorial contrasting English and American cycling practice: English clubs hold lively annual dinners at historic hostelries to present trophies and hear speeches, a tradition The Bearings recommends American clubs adopt in place of awarding prizes immediately after each event.
- Miss Bessie Le Verre of the New Castle Cycle Club, Pa., requests a ladies' department in The Bearings; the editor declines, citing small feminine readership, while acknowledging English writer 'Violet Lorne' addresses ladies' cycling needs more attentively than American counterparts 'Margery' or 'Ellen Le Garde.'
- Editorial warning that cycling clubs merging with large athletic organizations invariably lose their identity, citing the recent Missouri Bicycle and Athletic Club election and the Rochester Athletic Club's offer of gymnasium and quarter-mile track access to local cycling clubs for $1 per month.
- Hal B. Donly, secretary of the Canadian Wheelmen's Association, criticizes the Century Road Club of Canada's broad scope and the failed March 4 organizing meeting; The Bearings defends the club's road improvement mission, dismisses concern about Sunday century riding as provincial, and suggests the C.W.A. must be 'very decrepit' if the new club threatens it as a rival.
- The Bearings seeks average riders to cover sections from Chicago to New York—via Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Albany—aiming to cover roughly 1,000 miles in 100 hours; the only known precedent is Charles Neilson's solo 14-day-23-hour ride for the Chicago Inter-Ocean via Canada in June 1891.
- Dr. R. S. True of Syracuse, medical editor of Bicycling World, delivered an anatomical lecture on the physiological benefits and risks of cycling at the Chicago Cycling Club on March 12 before delegations from multiple clubs; The Bearings offers his address to neighboring cities wishing to book a free delivery.
- March 18 city letters cover Delaware's Dr. Twilley suing over illegal bridge arrest while riding, Illinois Division road book progress and Chicago club socials including the spring riding season opening on boulevards, Ohio's Buffalo-Cleveland relay race date set for May 21 and Columbus trade activity, Wisconsin club events and Andrae Cycle Works filling orders, Iowa's Sioux City track agitation and pneumatic enthusiasm, Massachusetts club concerts, Missouri's bicycle tax bill controversy and Division meet planning for Springfield, Nebraska's Omaha Wheel Club house plans, and New York state cycling news from Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester.
- Washington's L.A.W. meet committee, meeting at the Overman Wheel Co.'s office under Chief Consul Dyer and Colonel Burdett, plans four runs over two days, a river excursion to Mount Vernon, and a dance; the Ebbitt House will be headquarters, while the track question remains unresolved between the Y.M.C.A. facility and Brightwood.
- Chief Consul Gerould of the Illinois Division plans a specially decorated special train with sleeping and dining cars from Chicago to Washington on July 16-20, hotel accommodations at the Ebbitt House, and a brass band engaged; members of other Divisions are invited to join, with costs payable in small advance installments to Gerould at 108 Madison Street.
- Account of the Lincoln Cycling Club's season-closing smoker with sixty guests at a St. Patrick's green-decorated T-shaped table; highlights include the Schumann Male Quartet's encored rendition of 'Home Sweet Home' from the stairway, Welton Flinn of Detroit's praised speech on the 'Detroit' toast, and Joe Guinea's dialect stories, with the evening managed by J. M. Erwin (William Twinkle).
- The Arlington Wheelmen of Washington formally invite the Century Road Club of America to be guests at their clubhouse during the L.A.W. National Meet, conveying a resolution adopted at their regular meeting and signed by Secretary Wm. T. Robertson.
- Henry Ashinger beat Lamb by two feet at the 72-hour Madison Square Garden six-day race, covering 1,022 miles; the event drew only 3,500 at peak, was a financial failure, and was marred by allegations that Ashinger and Martin fixed first and second place, and by Tom Eck's documented abandonment of the San Francisco riders.
- Professional champion Richard Howell writes an open letter detailing how manager Tom Eck left the San Francisco riders destitute—signing their earnings to Sam Miles, charging them for track and board, then skipping to Minneapolis—forcing riders to pledge their wheels for train tickets and travel east six days in an emigrant car before competing at Madison Square Garden.
- Geo. R. Bidwell Cycle Co. refuses to pay the Madison Square Garden Company's exhibit bill, blaming the $1 admission charge for the poor attendance at the six-day race, with the Warwick Cycle Co. and R. L. Coleman & Co. expected to follow suit.
- Calendar of cycling events from March through September 1892, including the Bordeaux-Paris road race May 14, the Kansas City clubs' first century run May 30, the national L.A.W. meet at Washington July 18-20, the Ohio Division meet at Dayton July 4-6, and numerous Chicago club socials, relay rides, and road races across the country.
- A. Featherstone tells The Bearings he is confident the Dunlop tire patent will be sustained in court, noting the firm has quietly declined compromise proposals from rivals while awaiting judgment.
- A. Featherstone disputes the Chicago customs appraiser's ruling that royalties paid on imported Dunlop pneumatic tires should be included in the taxable purchase price, a decision upheld by the board of appraisers; he has taken the matter to court and testimony is complete, with a decision pending.
- Review of a new illustrated book by L. F. Korns of the Charles F. Stokes Mfg. Co. of Chicago, covering wheel selection, dress, learning to ride, care of the machine, road law, and road improvement for men, women, and children, with half-tone illustrations of correct and incorrect riding positions.
- The Bearings argues Chicago is destined to become America's national cycle show city, citing its commercial centrality, miles of ridable boulevards, the attraction it holds for English makers seeking U.S. agencies, and the impending World's Fair exhibit as the catalyst that will establish Chicago as the 'London of American wheelmen.'
- Rochester correspondents report the bicycle show generated sixty to seventy new wheel orders in one week from first-time buyers; F. L. Hughes, Robert Thomson, and C. J. Conolly all report record post-show trade, while the Rochester Cycle Works ships wheels daily and Rich & Sager win national demand for the Sager adjustable saddle and Beauty Child's seat.
- Trade notes cover Gormully & Jeffery's electric-powered display wheel logging 1,600 miles in their window and drawing imitation orders from dealers in St. Paul to Terre Haute, A. Featherstone and Pope Co. fitting illuminated windows, the Coventry Machinists' Co. moving to cycle row, and new agency and personnel appointments including Capt. Frank Yates opening a cycle store and Sieg & Clementi absorbing the Humboldt Cycle Co.
- Columbus trade notes report the Buckeye Bicycle factory preparing to open in former saw works to produce durable medium-weight wheels, the Evans Bicycle Company marketing the Casner Bicycle Rack, thirty-two citizens already ordering Century Columbias, and strong spring sales driven by cash payments rather than the time plans that dominated in 1891.