The Bearings, Vol 8, No 25
Articles in this issue
- Milwaukee correspondent interviews Walter Sanger, who denies gaining weight and confirms he will race in Class B next season under the Springfield Bicycle Club colors; also covers Wisconsin L.A.W. delegation plans for the National Assembly and competing bids from Ripon, Madison, and Waukesha for the state meet.
- Boston correspondence covers the Associated Cycling Clubs election (Spencer Williams tipped for president over retiring J.S. Dean), Ned McGlennen's proposed Paul Revere historical-cycling club with monthly literary papers and spring rides to Concord and Lexington, and the winter social season of bowling parties and assemblies at Massachusetts clubs.
- T.E. Parkes writes from Johannesburg with a detailed account of South African cyclist Meintjes' triumphant homecoming — cheered at Elandsfontein station, carried on shoulders, toasted with champagne at a 200-guest Wanderers' Amateur Cycling Club banquet — where he praised Zimmerman as the greatest racing man in the world and said America was the finest country he had ever seen.
- Harry Wheeler rode his first foreign race on January 4 at the winter track in Paris, a thirty-kilometer scratch event won by Medinger by inches, with Kuhling third.
- J.P. Bliss denies rumors that he has contracted with the Goold Bicycle Co. of Toronto and will take up Canadian residence, saying America is good enough for him.
- Annual meetings of the Cleveland Wheel Club and Lakeside Cycling Club Co. produce new officers and the C.W.C. converts to a stock company, offering current members two shares at par value $10 if they join before February 6; a pool tournament nears its close and J.S. Johnson is booked for a skating contest and club entertainment.
- C.M. Murphy has applied for reinstatement in the League, having consistently refused money racing since his expulsion, and expects a favorable decision.
- Paris correspondent A.G. Roux reports on Harry Wheeler's return from an Italian holiday and his early practice rides; A.V. Linton's arrival, collapse during the Christmas 24-hour race, and planned 100-mile match vs. J. Dubois; and L. Williams' surprise record-breaking performance in that 24-hour race at the winter track, beating Shorland's figure from the fourteenth hour though given too much wine and kola by his trainers.
- G. Woodward, a dark horse from the 270-yard mark, won the Melbourne Austral Wheel Race final on December 9, beating S. Bucknall by a foot in 5:03 2-5 for first prize of $1,000; James Busst's spectacular late sprint just fell short.
- Professional riders facing N.C.A. suspension after Madison Square Garden races are planning to race in France for the 1894 season, with Newhouse — who cleared $300 during the six-day race — among those seriously considering the trip.
- British 100-mile champion A.V. Linton beat French champion Dubois before 17,500 spectators in Paris on January 14, finishing over a lap ahead after Dubois fell and the crowd hooted Linton for pressing his advantage; Harry Wheeler paced Linton throughout.
- The Bay City Wheelmen of San Francisco face an attachment for roughly $1,500 stemming from debts incurred purchasing furniture from the defunct San Francisco Bicycle Club and building their cement track, though club officials say all debts will be cleared by mid-year with a membership of over 150.
- Kentucky L.A.W. officers led by Chief Consul Croninger have chartered a steamer for a six-day Ohio River excursion to the state meet at Owensboro, departing Cincinnati June 12, visiting Louisville and Evansville along the way, for $15 per person including meals and berth.
- Editor George K. Barrett apologizes for a 'somewhat sacrilegious story' that slipped into the Christmas issue through editorial oversight and promises stricter censorship of both editorial copy and advertising illustrations going forward.
- Editorial urging National Assembly delegates to adopt Class B so speed merchants can ride openly for manufacturers rather than hide behind shamateurism; notes race sanctions are already running well ahead of last year and new tracks are under construction across the country, predicting 1894 will be the banner year of cycle racing.
- Editorial endorsing Thomas F. Sheridan for L.A.W. president over incumbent-backed C.H. Luscomb, arguing Sheridan has served faithfully as first vice-president, is an active rider rather than a has-been, and that western push and energy should prevail over eastern influence this time.
- Regular department of brief cycling items: Zimmerman and trainer Troy opening a training school for up to a hundred amateurs in Freehold; Pennington's scheme to mount a gasoline-powered vacuum screw on a bicycle front fork; Sherborne Kennedy's glass-fronted handlebar kennel with a candle to keep his dog Nellie warm; a Marseilles dealer's bicycle-relay ticket scheme for the road to Genoa at $1.60 per day including meals and wheel exchange; and Pope calendar statistics estimating 361,111 bicycles — worth $36 million — in U.S. use.
- Feature presenting the new cycling song by Charles K. Harris, composer of 'After the Ball,' obtained exclusively by The Bearings; the full three-verse lyric and chorus tell of a father's comic despair at his daughter Katie's obsession with cycling at all hours, ignoring her studies and her mother's housework.
- Signed column by 'Nibs' proposing a current-regulated electric wire pacemaker running on the inside rail of a track, discussing northern Georgia 'chert' rottenstone as a dust-free track surface, and ending with observations on horseshoes causing punctures and the welcome return of full-sized postage stamps.
- Humorous fiction in which club man Snooks, having eaten a midnight supper of mince pie and stiff cigars before an early-morning run, dreams of a terrifying runaway coast into a boulder-strewn ravine — and wakes to find he has overslept by hours and missed the ride entirely.
- Short editorial responding to a contemporary's question about whether bicycle improvement has peaked, listing riders' outstanding wishes — non-rusting nickel plate, self-repairing pneumatics, 19-lb frames, dust-proof bearings, a creak-register — and concluding the bicycle can never be perfect as long as human nature remains as it is.
- Humorous streetcar anecdote in which a fidgety man splattered with mud by a sliding cyclist demands bicycles be banned from city streets and all riders fined $100, only for his red-faced companion to observe mildly, 'You talk as if you had a wheel.'
- Satirical sketch in which bootblack Jim, asked about the L.A.W.'s racial exclusion debate, declares that a Black cyclist would not want to 'sociate wid no hump-back, bow-legged crowd o' white skates' anyway — framing the exclusion as the club's own loss.
- Brief note reporting that W.C.T.U. leader Frances Willard has purchased a bicycle in England and cycles regularly near Lady Henry Somerset's castle, and has persuaded Lady Henry herself to learn to ride.
- Editorial concluding the New York Cycle Show was a decisive success: buyers could compare goods and prices side-by-side rather than rely on traveling salesmen, exhibitors were nearly unanimous in wanting a single annual show in New York or alternating between New York and Chicago, and heavy public attendance demonstrated readiness to learn about cycling and the trade.
- Editorial noting that despite most manufacturers preferring a single annual show, the large New York business encourages them to exhibit at the coming Philadelphia show as well, so two successful shows are expected in 1894 — though unlikely to become a permanent pattern.
- T.B. Jeffery of Gormully & Jeffery explains the Laforce pneumatic-tire patent case — a Toronto shoemaker who visited the G. & J. factory and later patented a leather-sided variant of their clincher won at first instance — and announces an appeal; lawyer Irvine Miller argues that Canadian statute requires the first inventor anywhere, so Jeffery's U.S. prior invention should invalidate Laforce's Canadian patent.
- Detailed report on the new cycle trade association forming in New York with $50,000 capitalization: it will manage future shows (trade-only first week, public the second), lobby against obnoxious legislation, promote good roads with a lecturer and possibly a quarterly journal, establish a credit bureau and black list, and employ a paid secretary — while explicitly not controlling prices or private business affairs.
- Account of the Metropolitan Association of Cycling Clubs' New York banquet: Colonel Pope extolled retail cycle trade prospects, C.W. Dickerson noted the West produces half of America's 250,000 annual wheels, H.E. Raymond spoke on racing, C.H. Luscomb read an amusing paper set in 2800, and H.L. Saltonstall revealed the association had quietly underwritten losses from the previous summer's international race meet at the cycle show.
- Extended show-coverage department: chainless safety breakthrough (A.W. Warren's :30 flying quarter and 2:25 mile), Giraffe wheel's warm reception for non-liability to side-slip, Frank Ives' key-lock clincher tire and George Webb's wire-locking rival, Excelsior Needle Co.'s 40,000-spokes-a-day capacity serving Pope and dozens of makers, Palmer Tire's $130,000 show week with constant on-stand repairs, Dan Canary leaving Overman for Lamb Mfg. as western manager, Anglo-American's interlocking steel rim passing John Palmer's 100-lb pressure test, Automatic Mud-Guard Co.'s rolling rubber mudguard on a crank-hanger roller, Brandenberg's dust-proof self-oiling pedal backed by Lloyd & Co., Ames & Frost's five-model Imperial line including a 23-lb racer at $150, Lovell Arms' drop-forged head-and-fork-crown and 19.5-lb racer, Keating Cycle's $100,000+ orders and new agencies coast to coast, Alex Schwalbach's 42,000 riding lessons in two years, and Phillips Wheel Co.'s no-dead-center variable-gear machine.
- Compilation of dealer statements gathered as exhibitors packed up: Western Wheel Works did ten times Philadelphia's business; Palmer Tire exceeded $130,000 in orders; Sterling upheld list prices throughout on workmanship it calls the costliest at the show; Keating sold over $100,000 and placed agencies in every region; Munger Cycle refused a 200-wheel order because production limits were reached; and nearly every exhibitor announced plans to return to New York the following year.
- Miscellaneous show notes: Lozier reportedly organizing a crack racing team with prominent riders already approached; Palmer gave Birdie Munger their seven-inch display tire to build a matching wheel; Munger building a 17-lb ladies' wheel for Miss Birdie Whitbeck; Eagle company's 'lightest ladies' safety' safety-pin prank fooled everyone including The Bearings' man; Marble Cycle's dove-tailed rim patent placed with Gormully & Jeffery; and Cleveland's narrow-tread wheel prompted other manufacturers to announce narrower models before the week was half over.