The Bearings, Vol 6, No 9
Articles in this issue
- The editor argues that J. S. Johnson's mile record of 1:56 3-5, set with the elliptic sprocket wheel and horse pacemakers at Independence, Iowa, is legitimate, and speculates that the device could bring Zimmerman below two minutes under similar conditions.
- English long-distance rider Holbein plans to return to America with pacer J. T. Cartwright to attempt the New York-to-Chicago road record, currently held by Charles Neilson at 1,158 miles in 14 days and 23 hours.
- The New York Sun has mounted five reporters on bicycles to cover summer resorts and solicit advertising, saving considerably on livery costs; travelling salesmen including the Hartford Cycle Co.'s Mr. Jackson are similarly riding several thousand miles per season on business.
- W. W. Harding's victories at the Hartford meet on a specially built 36-inch Relay Columbia geared to 72 revives debate over whether large wheels with high gearing outperform the smaller wheels in common use, with local Columbia agent Henry Andrus championing the big-wheel theory against the views of Pope factory foreman Copeland.
- The cycling club of Birmingham, Connecticut, grew from a handful of members to over sixty in four months, netted $500 at their recent meet, and expects to enroll more than 200 members before long.
- A five-mile handicap at the Riverside Athletic Club meet in Newark was left in dispute because the officers were careless, illustrating the editor's view that dignitary officials should yield actual race management to capable hands.
- The editor notes that the Bicycling World now has its own printing presses—as The Bearings does—while withholding compliments on the quality of the publication's improvement.
- Frank Egan compares S. G. Whittaker of Boston to editor Prial, raising the prospect of one or two libel suits.
- Charles E. Pratt, first L. A. W. president and legal adviser to Pope Mfg. Co., has suffered repeated family bereavements, drawing sympathy from the cycling community.
- Telephone communication between the judges' stand and dressing rooms at the Springfield meet relieved the clerk of the course of considerable extra running, and the editor recommends the idea for general adoption wherever starting point and dressing quarters are apart.
- A brief anecdote recounts Zimmerman being warned against a swelled head just before boarding a train at Springfield; the editor also mocks the lone over-decorated badge-wearer who was hissed and jeered by the press-men.
- A humorous first-person column by Chas. Cox satirises the manufacturer-subsidy system, describing the narrator's own 'oiling' by a cycle concern in exchange for exclusive endorsement and attendance at diamond-prize meets, then pivoting to argue that money prizes would end the charade of amateurism and produce faster racing.
- London correspondent DON writes about British skepticism of American cycling records and the quaint conservatism of English cycling culture, noting that Zimmerman's visits have markedly improved English respect for American speed, while poking fun at English weather, eccentric infrastructure projects, and the likelihood of a cyclist tax.
- The Chicago Cycling Club's racing team performed well on the Eastern circuit: J. P. Bliss won six wheels, A. E. Lumsden finished a close second to Zimmerman at Springfield, and L. D. Munger regained form to win the Peoria piano race—the first Westerner to capture an instrument.
- The Surrey meeting closes the 1892 English path season, described as simultaneously the most successful in attendance and track development and the most disastrous in terms of English riders being swept aside by American, German, and Dutch competitors.
- C. W. Hartung reports from London that F. J. Osmond set new safety records from 26 to 41 miles at Herne Hill, covers Holbein's planned North Road Club 24-hour attempt, discusses Nesbitt's London-to-Brighton ride on a 52-inch ordinary with Silvertown pneumatics, and notes the cancellation of Hillier's Paris racing trip.
- An extended editorial essay contends that the physical and mental demands of cycle track racing develop character, business ability, and lasting vigor in young men, illustrated with several anecdotes of Chicago-area riders who transformed themselves through years of competitive cycling.
- The editor challenges the Chicago Racing Board member's view that Johnson's records should be disallowed because horses paced him, pointing out that Tyler and Zimmerman were similarly paced by tandems and triplets; a second grievance details how judge George H. Collister of Cleveland overrode photographic evidence placing J. P. Bliss second in the Springfield mile handicap.
- Profile of A. O. McGarrett of Springfield—a celebrated race timer, former amateur rider, and leading member of the Springfield Club—who remains unjustly classified as a professional after being caught up in L. A. W. chairman Bassett's mass expulsions during the American Cyclists' Union dispute, despite never having raced for money.
- Detailed Paris dispatch covering Stephane's new 24-hour road record of 418 miles 664 yards on the Buffalo track, beating Shorland's 413-mile mark, with full narrative of pacing by Cottereau and Charron, a crisis at the 18th hour when Stephane wanted to quit, and the separate 100-kilometer record broken by young Marseilles rider Reboul in 2:53:46.
- Ulbricht, riding from scratch, won the second five-mile handicap road race for Morgan & Wright employees over the Oak Park course in 15:15, with Frankie Osmun second in 15:37; full results listed for all twenty finishers.
- Full account of the Illinois State Fair races at Peoria: J. S. Johnson was beaten in every event by the Chicago men—Munger won the piano race and mile open, Lumsden the half-mile and mile invitation, Bliss the two-mile handicap—while Zimmerman and the major Eastern cracks failed to appear and the half-mile track with a curve finish was widely condemned.
- Report on the third annual Park Avenue Wheelmen race meet in Philadelphia, where Zimmerman won the horse-and-buggy main prize in the mile handicap and was carried from his wheel in triumph; Lumsden, Bliss, Murphy, and Winship also performed well across preliminary heats and finals, and Miss Donnelly made the prize presentations.
- J. S. Johnson set a new flying-start mile record of 1:56 3-5 on September 22 at the kite-shaped track in Independence, Iowa, paced by two horses (Uncle Henry and Ned Gordon) in quarters of :29 1-4, :58 3-4, 1:28 1-2; the official timesheet signed by referee C. F. Tucker and seven timers was forwarded to the L. A. W. Racing Board in Chicago.
- Frank Shorland won the North Road Club's 24-hour road race with 367 miles, breaking Holbein's record, while J. A. Bennett finished second at 352½ miles and Cocker third at 346 miles; the detailed narrative covers the midnight start, pacing mishaps, level-crossing delays, and Shorland's dramatic closing sprint through St. Neot's.
- Interview with Willis B. Troy, representative of a baseball-magnate syndicate, outlining the proposed professional cycling circuit: six identical quarter-mile tracks coast to coast, two circuits per season, $25,000 in prizes including four final championships, paid officials, with Zimmerman and G. F. Taylor both expressing willingness to sign contracts.
- Milwaukee's J. F. Reitzner swept every event at the Racine, Wisconsin meet—mile handicap (2:33), half-mile handicap (1:13), quarter-mile (:36), and the 14-mile race (51:25½)—all from scratch, also winning the time medal and watch in the 14-mile event.
- At the Rockland County Wheelmen fall meet at Spring Valley, N.Y., Zimmerman won the half-mile scratch (1:19½) and the three-mile handicap (7:57½), with C. M. Murphy also taking prizes.
- At the Wanderers B. C. meet in Toronto, G. F. Taylor won the quarter-mile flying start (:32) and half-mile open (1:12 2-5) over H. C. Tyler, but his wheel broke in the one-mile open, Carman ran over him, and G. M. Wells of Toronto took the race in 2:39 3-5.
- Tom Relph of Springfield won the two-mile lap race (5:33 1-5) and the one-mile scratch (2:35 2-5) at the West Lynn Rovers meet in Lynn, Massachusetts.
- The first race meet in Butte, Montana on September 18 drew wheelmen from across the state; Dr. W. L. Swendeman of Helena set new five-mile (14:45) and quarter-mile (:35) state records and won multiple open events, with about 1,000 spectators present.
- Frank Bodach, riding from scratch with pacemakers allowed, won the Eolus Club's ten-mile road race over the Chicago West Side course in 29:40—a new course record, improving on Nessel's previous 30:08—with twenty-three of twenty-five starters finishing.
- The Johnson brothers and A. I. Brown of the Lakeside Cycling Club set new world triplet records for the mile, half, and quarter on a Winton triple machine at the Glenville track in Cleveland, reaching the mile from a flying start in 2:07 before a panel of official timers including Col. Wm. Edwards and W. H. Boardman.
- Trotter Nancy Hanks lowered her trotting record from 2:07 to 2:04 at Terre Haute, Indiana, covering the quarter in :31, the half in 1:02¾, and the three-quarters in 1:32¼.
- A wheel won by Tyler at Baltimore has reportedly been found in a Baltimore cycle store, prompting inquiry into whether he sold it; separately, chief consul Mott withheld J. P. Bliss's Baltimore prize after charges that Bliss concealed his record from the handicapper.
- S. G. Spiers of San Francisco hosted a banquet for Southern California wheelmen at the Nadeau Cafe in Riverside on September 21, at which Dr. Stedoma presented J. C. Burke with a gold watch and chain in recognition of his record-breaking ride at the recent Riverside meet.
- J. B. Gilbert of Ascot tells Chicago wheelmen that bicycle sales in England have increased enormously, Members of Parliament commute by bicycle, and Mr. Gladstone's public praise of cycling is expected to drive further adoption among the fashionable classes.
- The Illinois Division of the L. A. W. has published a new road book compiled over seven months by L. W. Conkling and C. L. Steen, containing sixteen sectional maps with all cycling roads classified by quality and grade; priced at $1 for league members and $2 for non-members.
- The League prosecuted George Colebeck, a pop-wagon driver who struck and seriously injured Sam T. White in Chicago on July 16, and despite an alderman signing his bonds and an ex-alderman defending him, Colebeck was fined $50 and costs by Justice E. T. Glennon.
- Ex-chief consul W. S. Bull of Buffalo publicly condemns flying starts as impractical and unfair to competitors and spectators, calls for official paid timekeepers and referees, advocates for class races, and dismisses J. S. Johnson's Independence records as worthless.
- Statistics showing one bicycle per 209 persons nationally and one per 25 in Union County, N.J., are cited as evidence that cycling has materially hurt the livery and carriage manufacturing trade; road-vehicle maker Pray recounts a Plainfield carriage builder who closed his works, attributing his losses to 'them bicycle fellers.'
- Calendar of sanctioned race meets for October and November, including the Crescent Wheelmen meet in Cincinnati, Lockwood C. C. at Jacksonville, Illinois, the Chicago Cycling Club Tournament, and the Milwaukee Wheelmen three-day tournament in the Exposition building.
- A. B. Curtis of Reed & Curtis Machine Screw Co. in Worcester, Mass., tells The Bearings that the largest share of his letter orders cite the paper, demonstrating that genuine circulation reach matters more than the geographic location of a publication.
- Reports that negotiations were opened for an established English company to acquire rights to the elliptic sprocket wheel and safety bicycle on a royalty basis, though later intelligence suggests a large American manufacturer may purchase the patent outright instead.
- The Winton Bicycle Co. of Cleveland has reorganized with $100,000 paid-up capital, moved to a new factory at Perkins Avenue and the C. & P. R. R., elected new officers including F. L. Alcott as president, and plans to produce road, track, and ladies' models for 1893, including a 48-lb. racing tandem and the first American triplet.
- The Garford Mfg. Co. has produced more than twenty saddle designs and sold approximately 100,000 saddles; Parkhurst & Wilkinson of Chicago serve as sole western agents, and Edwin Oliver will represent the firm in Middle and Eastern states for 1893.
- Ames & Frost Co. clarifies that Sieg & Clementi Co. is not in financial difficulty but is being reorganized as the Chas. H. Sieg Mfg. Co. with increased capital to handle the anticipated growth in the 1893 cycle trade.
- Charlie Price, one of Milwaukee's fast young men, leaves the Roth-Kasten Cycle Co. for the Sercombe-Bolte Mfg. Co., where he gets a 25-pound Sanger racer with narrow sixteen-inch handle bars while training for the Chicago fall tournament.
- H. A. Lozier of Cleveland plans to produce $1,000,000 worth of high-grade wheels for 1893, targeting 1,000 wheels in October alone, with a new three-story warehouse nearly ready and models already adopted well ahead of competitors.
- A brief tribute to Superintendent Beck, who has managed the Pope Company's Hartford factory for two years and is described by a factory employee as a 'corker' for his mechanical and executive ability.