The Bicycling World, Vol 1, No 10
Articles in this issue
- Short editorial paragraphs: the Baltimore Park Board grants ladies and gentlemen leave to shoot archery in the parks, Detroit riders plan a bicycle-platoon drill for a Recreation Park tournament, Maurice Thompson is quoted on the fascination of archery, and Newport correspondent 'Margery Dean' frets over Captain Munroe's Decoration Day meet.
- A history of the Waltham Bicycle Club, founded December 1879 from a summer road club, with details of runs to Revere Beach, South Framingham, and Lowell, and the club's corduroy uniform.
- A letter from 'Ixion' advising 'Phoenix' to choose the head lamp over the hub lamp for night riding, recommending the English-made 'Salsbury' lamp burning refined sperm oil as superior to any American bicycle lamp.
- The spring 1880 bicycle boom outruns supply: a 'Harvard' order means a three weeks' wait, Hodgson's Newton factory and the Popes' Hartford works run at high pressure, and each steamship brings the Cunninghams huge cases that keep Pearl street lively.
- A lyrical touring narrative of a December bicycle excursion through Essex County, Massachusetts, describing macadam roads in fine winter weather.
- Reports from the Amherst College, Brooklyn (a committee of MM. Muir, Koop, and Gullen to seek repeal of the city's anti-bicycle ordinance), Chauncy, Chillicothe, Columbia College, Essex, Massachusetts, Montreal, New York (arranging the Newport Decoration Day meet; Charles E. Pratt elected honorary member), Providence, San Francisco, Saratoga, Suffolk, Trenton, and Union bicycle clubs.
- An entertaining address by President Bates of the Detroit Bicycle Club on trick riding and showmanship, read at a club meeting.
- A tabulation and discussion of the fastest recorded bicycle mile times in America and England, comparing amateur and professional performances.
- Advance notice of a proposed large bicycling gathering planned for Newport, Rhode Island in late May 1880, anticipated as a landmark national cycling event.
- Notes on bicycle manufacturers including Cunningham, Pope, and Hodgson, and their current production capacity amid surging demand.
- A report on the state of cycling in New York City, covering road conditions, club activities, and public attitudes toward bicyclists.
- A candid first-person account of the challenges of learning to ride a bicycle, offering reassurance to beginners struggling with balance and control.
- The editor answers readers on Sunday riding in Massachusetts, whether a 33.5-inch leg suits a 52-inch wheel, all-bright versus painted finish, cranks shorter than six inches, and which Boston clubs — the Boston and Massachusetts — stable members' machines.
- Reviews of The Sportsman's Year-Book for 1880 edited by J. Keith Angus (with 28 pages on bicycling), the March St. Nicholas, Harvard's The Crimson, and the new Haverfordian, with a jab at the Boston Home Journal's paragrapher.
- The proposed bicycle tour of England is assured: a party of twenty is to sail from New York on 22 May aboard the Inman liner 'City of Richmond', returning late in July, with a second party mooted for early August.
- Henry W. Lamb, secretary of the Driving and Athletic Association, writes that its directors will lay a third-of-a-mile bicycle track at Beacon Park, ready by 10 May, if one hundred and fifty bicycling members are guaranteed by 10 April; admission fee ten dollars.
- United States letters patent for bicycles, tricycles, and velocipedes issued 23 December to 2 March, reported by patent solicitor C. E. Pratt — including J. H. Dennis's velocipede sled, F. Fowler's tricycle, and a re-issue to B. P. Crandall.
- Comic verse 'By Lord Boyrun' in mock-Byronic style, hailing the bicycle's rise from the reproachful 'boneshaker' of 'Sixty-nine to a 'Phoenix and a volant miracle'.
- A reprint of the out-of-print No. 12 (25 May 1878) of the American Bicycling Journal so subscribers can complete their files, including the Boston Post's account of the Boston Bicycle Club under Frank W. Weston, the editor's critique of 'Laura's' verses, and the London correspondent's letter on Easter racing at Wolverhampton and Kennington Oval.