The Bearings, Vol 8, No 14
Articles in this issue
- John S. Johnson and the Stearns aggregation break multiple world records at Independence, Iowa's kite-shaped track over five days (Oct. 26–31), including a flying quarter-mile in 24 2-5 seconds, flying half-mile in 55 seconds, standing quarter in 28 seconds, and standing half-mile in 59 2-5 seconds, paced by the Stearns quadruplet under trainer Tom Eck.
- At Charter Oak Park, Hartford, Zimmerman lowers the flying third-mile record to 35 seconds flat and rides the flying quarter in 25 seconds flat; E.C. Bald surprises with a flying quarter in 25 1-5, and the Banker brothers set a tandem flying quarter record at 25 seconds flat.
- A.A. Warren rides a standing-start mile at Springfield, Mass. in 2:04, going the last quarter unassisted, showing himself capable of record performances beyond his pacemaking work for Windle and Tyler.
- The third annual century of the Peoria Bicycle Club from Peoria to Bureau and return (104 miles) drew fewer than ten riders; 65-year-old Thomas W. Davis suffered a hard fall when his front forks broke at the crown 33 miles out and had to walk twelve miles before finding transport home.
- Results from the first fall meeting of the Southern Amateur Athletic Union (Oct. 28): four bicycle races before 4,000 paid admissions, with the quarter-mile won by A.C. Abbott, half-mile and one-mile won by fifteen-year-old Peter Casse, and two-mile won by M.F. Hickman of Birmingham, Ala.
- The Alamo Wheelmen plan a Thanksgiving Day race meet at the San Antonio jockey club's new half-mile track; notes on the city's two cycling clubs and their fast men including Mockett, Hofheinz, and Smith, and the wedding of Nebraska Cycle Co. secretary C.L. Reierson to Miss Florence Thompson of San Antonio.
- The bicycle section of Rome's Gymnastic Society has conducted military experiments in which cyclists carry caged carrier pigeons for dispatch relay; in tests at Guebileo Castle ten miles from Rome the pigeons returned without trouble, and military authorities plan more extensive trials.
- Editorial tribute to Chicago Mayor Carter H. Harrison, assassinated, praising him as president of the Illinois good roads association and the most capable and industrious advocate for street and highway improvement the wheelmen have had.
- Editorial arguing against a two-class amateur/paid-amateur system in the L.A.W., proposing that the only workable definition is 'an amateur is one who has never competed for a cash prize,' and faulting the League for years of failing to enforce its own rules while encouraging the very violations it now cannot punish.
- Editorial endorsing Charles E. Randall for chief consul of the Illinois division, citing his record of recruiting nearly 300 new members in 1892, seven terms as president of Chicago clubs, and long service representing Illinois at the National Assembly as the man who can reverse the division's membership decline.
- Reprint of Sterling Elliott's essay from the Bicycling World lamenting ward-politics-style trading, 'dickers,' and nose-counting in the League of American Wheelmen, illustrated by the pre-convention dealing at the Buffalo meeting before any investigation had begun.
- Correspondence from Brunswick, Melbourne reports the inaugural meeting of the League of Victorian Wheelmen, a new Australian cycling paper, and a purported world road record of 25 miles in 1:01:00 by H.B. James of the Southern District Cycling Club, aided by a hurricane on a 63-inch gear.
- Cincinnati bicycle clubs and the Order of Cincinnatus plan a six-day spectacle at Music Hall (Dec. 4–9) for the benefit of unemployed workmen: 100 riders, 50 ladies, costumed quadrilles, a mechanical 30-foot dragon, and an electrical illumination display by trolley-wired bicycles.
- The international cycle races in Milan drew 16,000 spectators; the tandem race (3,000 meters) was won by the French pair Medinger and Delansorne in 4:15, and Italian Pasta equaled German Lehr's kilometer record at 1:16.
- In Duluth, Minn., nineteen-year-old Lisle Robbins struck Mrs. K. Williams at six miles per hour after she backed into his arm; her skull fractured and she died minutes later; a coroner's jury found gross carelessness despite testimony suggesting she was startled, and Robbins faces criminal prosecution defended without charge by ex-chief consul Henry E. Harris.
- Notes on competing Baltimore dealers staging paced long-distance record attempts for advertisement purposes; a local newspaper's attack on one attempt is attributed to a rival dealer's animus and condemned as 'penny journalism'; the Century Cycling Club of Maryland took twenty-five men on a century to Washington and return.
- H.H. Wylie responds to Nelson A. Bradt's challenge for a New York-to-Chicago race, defending his record of 10 days 4 hours 39 minutes, declining to sacrifice his amateur standing for any purse, and offering to relinquish all honor only if Bradt produces proof of the faster time he has variously claimed.
- The Cody (horse) vs. Terront (bicycle) match agreed at the Casino de Paris will run three days, four hours each day, with Cody using ten horses and Terront riding alone without pacemakers, for a wager of 10,000 francs ($2,000).
- Satirical enumeration of the impossible qualifications required of L.A.W. president and Illinois chief consul candidates—shrewd diplomat, master of human nature, host of champagne dinners, geography expert, emergency $5 lender, and wife skilled at feeding strangers—skewering the absurdity of cycling political office.
- Humorous Q&A responding to 'Constant Reader of The Bearings' on road-hog encounters, extracting service from inattentive waiters at L.A.W. hotels, the dangers of Aurora beer on century rides, wearing sweaters to receptions, and the undisclosed rates paid to fast amateurs by bicycle manufacturers.
- Comic fiction in which racing cyclist Algernon De Courcey McFadden's amateur pride crumbles when heiress Evelyn McCafferty reveals that her brother sits on the Racing Board, forcing his capitulation into the tire agency trade and marriage—a satire on the power of Racing Board connections over cycling careers.
- A.V. Linton sets a new 100-mile path record at Herne Hill in 4:29:39 despite four punctures and nine wheel changes, paced by seven tandem crews using Grappler tires; the Palmer Tire Co. hosts a farewell dinner at the Hotel Metropole for Meintjes and Palmer with the cycling press including Bidlake, Shorland, and Edge; M.A. Holbein suffers two failed tricycle record attempts; and Burgess and Cole set a 50-mile tandem road record of 2:13:43 at Herne Hill.
- L.A.W. Georgia division notes: chief consul Whitesides and secretary Rushing expected to serve another term; controversy over renting the cement track to Black cyclists, with several fast riders threatening to boycott the track if allowed; the new Bicycle Hospital repair shop of Wenzel & Rogers; local riders' preference for light track racers with road tires on Savannah's excellent roads.
- Kansas City Cyclists pursue the century craze on the Paola route; H.R. Warren completes the 100-mile course in 9 hours 27 minutes after his partner C. Kindevatter's track racer breaks down at 35 miles; A.A. Hanson of St. Paul holds the northwest 24-hour road record at 224 miles, riding Blooming Prairie and return.
- The Brader inquest in Cleveland exonerates cyclist Charles J. Bard after the coroner finds the victim likely intoxicated; Cuyahoga County commissioners report near-completion of systematic crushed-stone road trials on the Wooster pike and Bedford road; the Cleveland Wheel Club votes to incorporate with $10,000 capital stock and celebrates a well-attended housewarming at its new headquarters.
- Boston correspondent reports on the L.A.W. Massachusetts division election, predicting a large vote and strong showing for Perkins and Howard over Dean and McCausland, and noting that Sterling Elliott's 'disgustingly personal' letter has backfired against Dean's candidacy in Worcester, Somerville, and smaller clubs statewide.
- Editorial reversing an earlier recommendation for Philadelphia, now advising all manufacturers to concentrate their exhibits at New York, where the Metropolitan Association has secured nearly fifty spaces and demonstrated superior energy, while urging Philadelphia to abandon its competing show plans.
- Editorial endorsing The Referee's initiative to form a cycle trade association, noting the many favorable responses received, and urging a founding meeting among willing firms to be held during the upcoming New York show.
- Update on the competing cycle shows: Pope Mfg. Co. has booked six spaces at New York and four at Philadelphia; Gormully & Jeffery refuse to exhibit at New York; C.A. Sheehan and C.A. Persons are actively canvassing, and New York has already closed contracts for nearly fifty spaces.
- Trade notes on the Eastern Rubber Co. of Trenton, N.J., offering tires under the Gem, Fleetwood, Climax, Arrow racing, and Cyclone names, represented in the west by W.J. Walker at Lake Street, Chicago; and a brief item on a Lyndhurst wheel whose forks bent on a smooth road after the rider admitted hitting a curb.
- The Newton Rubber Works of Boston introduces F.W. Heustis's patented detachable tire, claiming it cannot creep on the rim, suits lightweight wooden rims, and engages absolutely by a stiff band principle; the construction is illustrated in the advertising pages.
- Miscellaneous items: 'geared bug' as English slang for the front-driver; a fifteenth-century Chinese velocipede inventor beaten to death for his invention; the Lyon Universal Exposition of April 1894 reserving a large space for cycles; and William Corcoran, manager of the Waltham cycle track, possibly returning to train the N.Y.A.C. cycling team.
- John Palmer returns to Chicago from five months in England, confirming formation of the Palmer Tire Co. Ltd.—comprising Rudge, Whitworth, and the India Rubber, Gutta Percha & Telegraph Works—with 100,000 sets contracted in England and French manufacture planned in Brest; Palmer secured half-a-dozen new patents and plans a German expansion next season.
- The Coventry Machinist Co. closes its Chicago store, shipping goods to its San Francisco agent DeYaney, Hopkins & Co., having failed to overcome U.S. customs difficulties and competition from American-made bicycles; manager Marrett will remain in America while Boston manager Hill returns to England.
- Survey of a dismal 1893 bicycle trade in Kansas City, where an oversupplied market, jobbers openly selling retail below dealer prices, carload auction shipments from Chicago, and a retailer's stock sold under a sheriff's execution combined to drive the trade to losses and push many dealers out of business.
- The Stearns quadruplet at Independence, Iowa, carrying 750 pounds of combined rider weight at record-breaking speed behind Johnson, provides a crucial durability test for the new wooden-rim style; also, one-legged trick rider C.G. Kilpatrick plans a southern tour this winter ending in Cuba.
- Analyst 'Brakespeare' argues that market forces will drive further reductions in 1894 road bicycle weights despite makers' reluctance and guarantee costs, predicting standard roadsters at 25–26 pounds and scorchers' mounts as low as 20 pounds, because each maker knows a competitor will build the lighter wheel if he does not.
- Charles Duryea visits the Bearings office to pitch a new knot-net pneumatic tire using orthogonal knotted threads forming quarter-inch squares that limit puncture spread and prevent creep, attachable by band, clincher, or hook-and-eye principle—but he leaves without naming the tire, promising fuller particulars later.
- Alfred Stainforth, advertising manager of Union Cycle Mfg. Co. and a well-known cycling press contributor, marries Miss M. Thompson of Perthshire, Scotland, who arrived on the steamship Furnessia, at Fall River, Mass.
- Cushman & Denison introduce their new 'Star' oiler at a low price and announce improvements to the long-favored 'Perfect' oiler, which has just received the highest award at the Chicago Columbian Exposition.
- List of U.S. patents recently granted for cycle-related inventions, including crank-and-sprocket fastenings (Frank P. Crosby, Chicago), bicycle stands (Levi Devore, Freeport), hollow wheel rims (Edward Warwick, Birmingham), cycle wheels (Albert Perkins / A.G. Spalding & Bros.), and valved pneumatic tires (Fred W. Morgan and Rufus Wright, Chicago).
- J. Elmer Pratt presents a detailed selling-cost breakdown showing that overhead—manager, bookkeepers, two traveling men, advertising in five cycle papers, racing salaries, and losses—adds nearly $20 per wheel above factory cost, arguing that list prices below $150 are unsustainable and that the agency system is the only sound business model, as proved by Pope, Bissel, and the National Cash Register Co.
- Trade columnist 'Bolav' condemns cheap imitation bicycles sold at $75 whose forks collapse dangerously on track—citing a near-fatal accident at the A.C.C. meet—and argues that the safety bicycle, indispensable on Chicago Day at the World's Fair when no other vehicle could navigate the streets, is 'the king of all wheeled things' and cheap at any honest price.
- Miscellaneous trade gossip: H.F. Cody to travel the southern states for Central Cycle Mfg. Co.; Stover Co. to exhibit only at New York; rust penetrates aluminum plating on steel just as it does nickel; E.A. Sperry of the defunct Sperry Cycle Co., Denver, faces court action over a disputed wheel; Morgan & Wright resuming full production after weeks at four days per week; direct-spoke racing wheels hum less than tangent-spoke at speed.