The Bearings, Vol 9, No 16
Articles in this issue
- New York correspondent reports that F.J. Titus of the Riverside Wheelmen is training steadily at Hampden Park, Springfield, alongside the Overman and Rambler strings and Walter Sanger; Titus accepts the challenge of W. Outerbridge, Burmudian champion, for a one-mile diamond-prize race at Manhattan Field on June 23.
- Bert Harding of the St. Louis Cycling Club covers the 45-mile De Soto road unassisted in 3:33:00, twenty-four minutes better than his own previous record, despite fresh-metalled roads that were barely ridable over much of the route.
- Zimmerman, Banker, and Wheeler are in Paris being photographed and idolized by cycling-mad Frenchmen; the Scottish Cyclist recounts how Zimmerman calmed an enormous crowd at a French race meet by stepping onto the track and shaking hands with spectators.
- At the Brixton Bicycle Club meeting at Herne Hill, F.J. Osmond fails by a yard and a half to win the ten-mile Brixton silver challenge cup (worth $262), losing to T. Gibbons Brooks of the Polytechnic Cycling Club; London correspondent C.W. Hartung also reports on the N.C.U. licensing scheme breakdown and Zimmerman's arrival in France.
- Entries for the third annual Martin 25-mile handicap road race in Buffalo on Decoration Day (May 30) include Van Wagoner, F.C. Graves of Springfield, and Linneman; the first prize is a $650 Kurtzman piano made for the World's Fair, with over fifty prizes on the list.
- Leading racing men including J.S. Johnson (lavender and maroon), J.P. Bliss (full pink), M.F. Dirnberger (light blue), W.F. Murphy (white and cardinal), and C.M. Murphy (green and white) register their colors with Chairman Raymond ahead of the season.
- The first track races of the season at Saugus, Mass., draw a small crowd; Gary, Graves, and Arnold were placed on scratch but Gary did not ride due to a bad knee; newcomer Fuller of Malden wins the one-mile handicap with ease, while Massachusetts leads the L.A.W. with some 3,500 renewals.
- Profile of Nat Butler, a 24-year-old iron molder from near Boston who broke the world's 25-mile road record at 1:11:28 2/5 in the Linscott road race, despite going off course and being held up by a freight train; trained by Frank Jordan, he now rides for the Stearns team at Syracuse.
- Editor G.K. Barrett's editorial celebrates Chicago's record 419 entries to the Chicago Road Race at a $2 entry fee, declaring it the greatest road race in the world and surpassing both New York's Irvington-Milburn and Boston's Linscott events.
- Editorial elegy on the decline of F.J. Osmond, once England's pre-eminent racing cyclist, comparing his fate to that of Hillier, Sellers, Hendee, and Windle — all idols of an hour whose physical prowess proved a fragile foundation for lasting fame.
- Editorial arguing that Bresler and Noack, having been expelled by the L.A.W. National Assembly, are foolish to attempt forming a rival league; the national organization is likened to the buzz saw that decapitated them, and any new league would inevitably fall flat.
- Column of shorter items: "Old 46" Neiswonger of Orange, Ohio, is said to be targeting the 24-hour record; E.C. Bald's Atlanta victory over J.S. Johnson is analyzed; a Chicago Tribune survey finds cycling the leading fad in nine of twenty American cities; bicycle thieves in the Columbus penitentiary; Ohio L.A.W. division candidates Parker G. Reed and George R. Prout named.
- Full report of the L.A.W. trial committee verdict finding Michigan division officers Joseph M. Bresler and W.C. Noack guilty of conspiracy against the League's welfare; both are expelled, and Bresler vows to establish a new league open to colored riders and governing professional racing, promising a sensation within a month.
- Exactly 419 entries received for the Chicago road race, generating $838 in time prizes; the Chicago Cycling Club enters Barrett, Bliss, Githens, and others, while the Illinois Club leads with 48 entries behind Charles T. Knisely; two dangerous course corners are eliminated following a meeting of the A.C.C.
- The Denver Cyclists' Union is effectively dissolved after the Ramblers demand equal board representation against the Denver Wheel Club, which controls the stock organization; the L.A.W. meet and Decoration Day road race will be managed by state officers and an advisory board drawn equally from Denver clubs.
- E.C. Bald recounts his mile victory over J.S. Johnson at Atlanta on May 9, cutting inside Taylor's pacing to win by half a length; Buffalo wheelmen anticipate a showdown between Bald and Dirnberger against the Stearns team of Johnson, Taylor, and Callahan at Lockport on July 4.
- Over 500 Louisville wheelmen parade through the city on a mayoral half-holiday, protesting an archaic bell-and-lantern ordinance with enormous gongs and cowbells; new clubs including the Columbian Cycle Club and Y.M.C.A. Wheelmen are forming, and the Covington Liberty Club runs a 100-mile road race from Lexington to Covington over the famous Lexington pike.
- Milwaukee Wheelmen prepare for the July 4 Waukesha-Milwaukee road race with reformed committee handicapping and a tighter ten-minute time limit; the club's minstrel benefit for the Firemen's Relief Fund raised about $600 following the Davidson Theater fire; the Mercury Club plans a Racine-Milwaukee road race July 21 with over $400 in prizes.
- Editorial reflecting on the death of a local Chicago wheelman killed by a North-Western locomotive, warning cyclists of the futility of crossing tracks carelessly and drawing the broader lesson that no amount of cycling toughness can overcome a moving train.
- Editorial puzzling over the non-cycling public's persistent contempt for wheelmen regardless of their breeding, education, or professional standing, and speculating that the sport will only gain full social respectability when wealthy bankers and men of commerce take up the wheel.
- Short note celebrating that the King of Belgium, Russian royal princes, the King of Italy, the Prince of Wales, and now the Queen of Portugal — who presented a silk trophy flag at an Oporto race — have all embraced cycling, suggesting the sport is unstoppable in Europe.
- Satirical squib noting that Sir William Harcourt failed to report to Parliament any recommendation for a bicycle tax, apparently forgetting the matter entirely — to the relief of cyclists who had spent considerable energy opposing the proposed measure.
- Minneapolis wheelmen celebrate after Sergeant Martinson, who had zealously enforced the anti-sidewalk-cycling ordinance against riders, was himself caught riding a bicycle on a sidewalk and promptly suspended by the chief of police.
- Humorous dialect anecdote about Vincenzo Gazzolo, a banana-stand owner on a Chicago corner, whose first bicycle ride on State Street — urged by his organ-grinding friend Cafferata — ends in a spectacular smash involving a cable car and a horse team, leaving him bandaged and furious.
- Race results from Charleston, S.C., May 12: J.S. Johnson beats George F. Taylor in the one-mile handicap, and Taylor later lowers the Charleston track record to 2:15 1/2; Will Hyslop of Toronto dominates the Class A quarter-mile, easily beating Ray Dawson of New Jersey.
- Correspondence from Jesse Barker of Humboldt, Kansas, arguing that the L.A.W. should not associate itself with the Coxey good-roads movement, warning that any such demonstration would class respectable wheelmen with Coxey's army of tramps in the public mind.
- Two-page insert newsletter published by the Hill Cycle Mfg. Co.: editorials responding to the A.C.C. censure with a retraction, attacking complacent older manufacturers, announcing the new Fowler Bantam road wheel (21 3/4 to 22 3/4 lbs., $143-$150), and pledging Fowler entries for the time prize at the Chicago, Irvington-Milburn, and Denver road races.
- Detailed survey of the Buffalo cycle trade: 2,000-3,000 workers ride home along Main Street each evening; H.C. Martin & Co. (588 Main) sells forty wheels a day from a stock of 300; Queen City Cycle Co., Bison Cycle Co., Buffalo Wheel Co., George N. Pierce & Co. (Queen City safeties, 3,000 wheels this season), and over a dozen other manufacturers and dealers are profiled.
- Visit to the Goodrich Rubber Co. factory in Akron, Ohio: over 1,200 workers (more than half women) manufacture Palmer tires from pure para rubber, layering fabric on a mandril, vulcanizing thread-down on circular rings, and marking each tire for individual worker accountability; an experienced worker can complete only twenty tires per day.
- Briefs on cycle trade business changes: new incorporations and openings in St. Louis, Hutchinson (Kan.), Washington D.C., New York, Denver, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Chester (Pa.), Columbus, and elsewhere; assignments, partnerships dissolved, and new stores opening across the country.
- Sterling Cycle Works patents a new nipple washer that allows the nipple head to sit flush with the wood rim surface without deep counter-boring, distributing stress across the full rim thickness and preventing the lower portion from pulling away under shock.
- W.C. Smith, president of the Meteor Cycle Co. of Battle Creek, Mich., invents a diamond-shaped key crank fastening in which the key cannot slide out even if the clamping bolt loosens, making it the simplest and most secure device for the repair shop.
- Syracuse Cycle Co. signs a ten-year lease on a new 80x100-foot factory in West Fayette Street, Syracuse, nearly doubling capacity to over 400 workers by August 1, 1894.
- The Hall cyclometer from Hall Mfg. Co., Wallingford, Conn., is light, neat, and dust-proof with a mica face; fits 28- or 30-inch wheels, registers to 100 miles with a simple reset, and has few parts to fail.
- A well-known bicycle parts manufacturer observes that American manufacturers consistently underestimate actual demand, and that even combined output estimates for balls or tires would still fall short of what buying manufacturers need to order.
- London correspondent (May 5) reports: C.V. Pugh of the Whitworth Cycle Co. defends light cycles after Enoch Lawton's fatal fork failure at Liverpool; the Starley Pneumatic Saddle Co. floats a prospectus on dubious patents; March 1894 British cycle exports reach £142,184; agents Mr. Illingworth and a C.T.C. consul draw condemnation for offering 37 1/2 to 50 percent trade discounts that undermine the market.
- Survey of the Erie, Pa. cycle trade: Black Mfg. Co. runs day and night turning out Tribune and Vigilant bicycles, which dealers universally make their leaders; Koster & Co. at 1618 Peach Street is the largest dealer; Erie Rubber Works makes the Keystone string-fastened clincher tire.
- In Ohio and neighboring states, companies are successfully using neatly uniformed boys on modern bicycles to deliver letters and parcels at 10-20 cents per delivery, completing runs in minutes that horse-based services take hours, and booking orders by telephone.
- After three years of contested proceedings, Kenwood Mfg. Co. of Chicago receives patent No. 518,591 (dated April 24, 1894) for the "double lower truss-tube frame" and announces it will use this construction exclusively on its bicycles going forward.
- The Dunlop company pursues patent infringers energetically both in England and America, having recently obtained permanent injunctions with costs against three English tire makers; Dunlop claims its patents cover all practical forms of wired tires.
- A letter from J.H. Ball of Nottingham Machinists' Co. argues against wood rims for English use: no reliable data supports them, they cost more than hollow steel rims, climate conditions differ from America, and Ball finds them structurally inferior sideways; he predicts aluminum will supersede wood for rim-making.
- Trade notes column: F. Ed Spooner is booking trick rider Sid Black for the season; Tribune wheels are universally popular with agents; the Peerless Mfg. Co. of Cleveland fields a new racing team of E.C. Johnson, Merrills, Goetz, and Comstock under trainer Pat Hussey; August Lehr breaks the Hamburg 400-meter record in :29 4/5 on a Raleigh; through sleeping-car service via the Fitchburg, West Shore, Nickel Plate, and Rock Island route to the Denver L.A.W. meet is arranged.
- Morgan & Wright tire manufacturers donate a 43-pennyweight, 14-carat gold medal — described as the handsomest bicycle prize medal ever put up — to the Century Road Club of America, to be awarded to the member accumulating the greatest mileage in 1894.
- The Lincoln Cycling Club of Chicago holds a ladies' century run over the Waukegan-Libertyville road, with Mrs. C.M. Fairchild, Mrs. A.R. Kelley, and Miss Harriette F. among the participants, escorted by H.C. Wilson and A.P. Peck, all finishing within thirteen hours over fair roads.
- Ten wheelmen from New York and Philadelphia clubs follow the Philadelphia Coaching Club's final "Alert" coach run of 110 miles from Hotel Waldorf to the Stratford Hotel; E.A. Carleton of the Staten Island Bicycle Club has his shoulder-blade broken in a carriage collision at New Brunswick; Seeding arrives first in Philadelphia, twelve minutes ahead of the coach.
- New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania clubs plan a 150-mile inter-state relay race on June 2; Pennsylvania will enter a six-man team likely including Charles Measure and C.L. Lagan (Century Wheelmen), F.N. Dampman (Quaker City), and Frank B. Marriott (South End Wheelmen).
- Olympic Club field day at the San Francisco Midwinter Fair: Otto Zeigler of San Jose dominates all cycling events and ties the coast two-mile record at 5:01; the Rambler team trains at Stockton under Manager Atkins with Zeigler and W.A. Terrill as prospects; O.E. Pickard of Oakland lowers the 100-mile coast record from 7:29:00 to 6:37:30.
- Pennsylvania L.A.W. division race meet will be held at Wilkes-Barre under the West End Wheelmen on July 2-3, with $2,000 in prizes; the Scranton Bicycle Club holds its annual meet on July 4, only eighteen miles away.
- Charles Whittle, a former Chicago Cycling Club member and son of Major Whittle the evangelist, is killed instantly by a North-Western train near Wheaton on May 10; separately, the Ariel Cycle Co. ships a 25-pound roadster to Earl Deakin in Yokohama for a tour of Japan and China.
- The Chicago & Alton-Union Pacific through line announces special sleeping cars, dining cars, and bicycle baggage cars for wheelmen attending the L.A.W. National Meet in Denver, August 13-18, 1894, departing from Chicago, Bloomington, and St. Louis at extremely low excursion rates.
- Philadelphia trade notes: Chas. S. Smith & Co. holds a fire-damage sale of over 150 scorched and waterlogged bicycles at 1141 South Broad Street; Curtis-Child Mfg. Co. opens a new Solid Comfort saddle factory in West Philadelphia about June 1; the Norman Wheel Co. enters bicycle manufacturing with the Norman steel wheel and the Lu-Mi-Num line.