The Bicycling World, Vol 43, No 2
Articles in this issue
- Col. George Pope of the American Bicycle Co. dismisses Syracuse press reports that the A. B. C. was throttling the Bretz Cycle Mfg. Co. and the Stearns Bicycle Agency to force the Wolff-American, Regal and Holland machines off the market, saying the only step taken was calling on E. C. Stearns, H. E. Maslin and Mrs. Avis Van Wagenen to sign the fifteen-year non-manufacture papers agreed when the A. B. C. was organised.
- Charles H. Lamson of Portland, Me., the luggage-carrier maker and jeweller who designed the L. A. W. badge, has offered creditors a 40 per cent settlement, with assets of $472.54 against liabilities of $1,150.26.
- The George W. Cole Co. of New York cuts Cole's Stop-Leak tire fluid to $1.30 per dozen of the regular 25-cent screw-top tubes, express prepaid to any part of the United States.
- British cycle exports for February totalled £38,483 against £42,120 in February 1900, while United States exports for the same months were valued at $240,840 and $342,840.
- Shelby Steel Tube Co. preferred stock has advanced from 40 to 58 and the common from 5 to 14 within the last month.
- The R. M. Keating Motor Co. of Portland, Me., incorporates with $500,000 capital to manufacture and deal in motor vehicles.
- The German Cycle Dealers Association meets at Berlin on a scheme to end all direct dealings between tire manufacturers and riders, handing purchase, repair and guarantees to the dealers, and wins a severe penalty against a Hamburg auctioneer who puffed a consignment of cheap American bicycles.
- Paris letter of March 22 arguing that Major Taylor's presence and the American makers' push for French trade may wake the French firms and force makers or track owners to provide motor pacing again; recalls Pingault's electric pacer, Rivierre's gasolene machine and a German trolley-wire experiment.
- The Court of Appeals at Albany hears the suit of John W. Queen and Thomas F. Donnelly, receivers of the Weaver Cycle Material Co., against Joseph A. Weaver over a bill of sale and assignment of book accounts alleged to have given him preference over other creditors.
- London letter of March 27 on cheap motocycles whose square-shouldered cranks and pins break and wreck cylinders, on Messrs. Gamage retailing valves at half the motor companies' $2, and on trailers that swing round descending hills and steering-wheel tires that wear badly on motor quads.
- British papers style 'Plunger' Hooley a princely bankrupt: a suite at Walsingham House, the country seats Papworth Hall and Risley Hall, over £6,000 a year in wages and an estimated £15,000 a year of living, all financed as agent for his wife.
- A retailer and a travelling man argue the merits of the English cross frame; the retailer holds that the diamond frame will not be displaced, since putting an extra tube in the front half would force heavier front forks or leave them certain to give way at the first severe shock.
- The Doughty bill requiring all rubber-tired vehicles in New York State to display lighted lamps after sunset has passed the Assembly and is before the Senate, with the Legislature adjourning on the 19th.
- Editorial mocking the British press's glee at the decline of American cycle exports, noting that England's own exports are nothing to brag of and that the United States still leads the world with Germany at Britain's heels.
- Editorial noting that average losses on instalment bicycle sales do not exceed 2 per cent while the time accommodation adds nearly 10 per cent to the price, which explains why so many dealers keep the time-payment plan.
- Editorial rebutting the charge that the bicycle is fragile and short-lived, holding that better-class machines of the day bear a resemblance to the 'one-hoss shay' and stay out of the repair shop — to the cost of retailer and repairman alike.
- Editorial urging dealers facing the best season since the boom burst to sell at a profit or not at all, to talk high grades rather than cheap wheels, and to form dealers' unions able to prevent the first and most dangerous price cut.
- Editorial asking whether the three C's — the coaster-brake, the chainless and the cushion frame — are novelty enough to impel buyers to purchase new machines, and so decide the 1901 season.
- A canvass of dealers by the Bicycling World finds annual losses from instalment sales rarely above 2 per cent, and sets out the safeguards: close scrutiny of the applicant, a binding contract such as the George N. Pierce Co.'s conditional-sale form (printed in full), promissory notes or a guarantor, 20 to 40 per cent down and settlement within four to six months.
- Counsel for the Worcester motocyclists Havener and Adams file exceptions to the Superior Court verdicts in Henry A. Corey's runaway-horse suit, arguing that the plaintiff could not say which machine frightened the horse, that double damages would result from verdicts against both, and that Worcester's eight-mile ordinance did not apply to motor tricycles.
- A Boston inventor is said to have built at Brooklyn a steam motor bicycle whose three-cylinder single-acting brotherhood-type engine weighs fifteen pounds, gives 2 horsepower and is barely two inches wide, the whole machine scaling eighty-five pounds and claimed to run twenty-five miles an hour on the road and forty on the track.
- The Hartford Rubber Works's 1901 catalogue, issued this week, has its cover and its Hartford tire illustrations printed in four or five colours, and is expected to set a new standard for trade catalogues.
- L. C. Havener writes from Worcester, Mass., that he is having a great business and has had more than he can do, with numerous inquiries for motocycles.
- F. W. Gridley answers the Municipal Court suit at Syracuse, N. Y., brought for wages by workmen of the old Dodge Cycle Company, denying that he was a member of the firm and alleging the services were rendered to the Dodges.
- Now that extremely low dropped crank hangers have passed away, a drop of some 2½ inches leaves little danger of the pedals striking even when turning corners.
- Warsaw, Poland, is making ready for a bicycle and sporting goods show, with foreign manufacturers generously invited to participate.
- William J. H. McGurn sues E. Doer Clark at Syracuse, N. Y., for $625 over the organising of the New Era Frame and Supply Co., alleging Clark claimed a secret process for moulding bicycle frames more cheaply and strongly than brazing, broke all his promises, and now uses it through the National Frame and Metal Co.
- Edward E. Ziegler of Philadelphia sues the Reading (Pa.) Automobile and Gear Co. for infringing his E-Z coaster-brake patents of June 12 and August 14, 1900, claiming his brother J. George Ziegler used his ideas in bringing out the Wyoma; Reed & Curtis Machine Screw Co. of Worcester are sole E-Z licensees.
- The French returns for 1900 show 975,878 cycles and 11,252 motocycles against a total of 838,856 in 1899, the Department of Seine alone accounting for 212,510 cycles and 3,449 motocycles.
- The De Beers and Velocycle Depot and Workshops, 40 De Beers Road, Kimberly, South Africa, is in the market for American cycles, parts and sundries.
- The British War Office's specification for its 1,200-machine order, criticised by the Cycle Manufacturers' Trade Protective Association, is printed in full: weldless steel tubing to B. S. A. gauges and D-section back forks, Leadbeater and Scott spokes, 61 gear, Brooks B22 military saddle and army toolbag, Lucas No. 61 bell and 'King of the Road' lamp, rifle clips and a Quadrant cycle rest.
- An auction of unclaimed packages at the American Express Co., Fourth Street and Lafayette Place, New York, on April 30 lists consignments to the Weaver Cycle Co., Warren Cycle Mfg. Co., Wooster Cycle Co. and Eastern Wheel Works.
- Captain W. T. Partridge of Detroit, who had a forged-steel 38-inch velocipede built at Maiden in 1868 and rode a three-minute mile in 1869, tells the Detroit Journal how ridicule made him abandon his attempt to cement a hose pipe onto a clincher rim ten years before the first air tube; L. J. Bates's geared velocipede of 1868 is also recalled.
- A repairman's complaint that wheels are now made 'too confounded good' to break or wear out enough to keep the shops busy is to be taken with many grains of salt.
- The Canada Cycle and Motor Co., with branches in England and Australia, makes the slogan 'Made under the flag' a part of all its advertising.
- Advice on stopping the leaks in the repair department: a place for every tool, a ticket on each machine recording the material used on the job, a repair stock book setting receipts against the day's usages, and a weekly estimate of cement and patching rubber.
- After many years the English Dunlop Tire Co. is about to vulcanize the fabric into its tires instead of merely pasting the strip of linen into the outer cover.
- The week's trade register: fires at J. M. Galbrait's, Swayzee, Ind., and John Rawlins's, Scranton, Pa.; new stores and repair shops from Red Oak, Ia. to Petrolea, Ont.; and changes of ownership across the United States and Canada.
- Chain breakages occur less frequently than of yore and the life of the average chain has been increased to no small degree.
- The coaster-brake is contrasted with the old hand brake, whose lever caused severe physical pain on a long hill, while the weight of the foot alone will now skid the rear wheel.
- A tire salesman lays nearly half of all tire troubles to riding them too soft, so that the rim is struck at every obstacle; dealers are urged to lay the injunction 'spare not the pump' on all customers.
- Fifty bicycles and James A. Conway's storehouse at Malden, Mass., were destroyed on Monday night by the explosion of a gasolene stove, a loss of about $1,400 with $800 insurance on the stock.
- The coaster-brake, chainless and cushion frame are being discussed, criticised and lauded, and should appeal with peculiar force to old riders who have found the pastime passé.
- A look into any repair shop shows that more than tires are undergoing repair, and that abuse, carelessness and neglect will consign even the best machines there.
- The Automotor Journal's analysis of motor bicycle design: balance and momentum when the rider is no longer pedalling, keeping the motor within the wheel centres and on the frame's centre line for cooling and against skidding, Professor Boys at the Automobile Club on low weight and skidding, and a preference for chain over belt or friction drive.
- The Wisconsin Wheel Works of Racine Junction, Wis., describes six Mitchell models in its 1901 catalogue, including a new Mitchell motor bicycle and the twenty-one-pound Model 50 road racer, with an unlimited guarantee.
- English riders claim good results from light racing tires with unprotected sides, but American tests show a loss of durability even greater than the gain in resiliency.
- The Cable Cycle Co. of Brockton, Mass., is installing new machinery at its factory and is said to be about to begin manufacturing.
- The Bangor (Me.) Repairmen's Association re-elects C. L. Chalmers president, with A. B. Purrington vice-president and E. H. Dakin secretary-treasurer, and prints its revised 1901 tariff — 50-cent punctures, $4 top tubes, a Morrow coaster-brake hub at $5, rentals at $5 a month and tandems at double price.
- The Minneapolis Times of April 3 reports dealers in the central part of town too busy for luncheon, salesmen talking wheels to half a dozen people at once after ten days of warm weather.
- Claims of the week's cycle patents, among them Frederick I. Johnson's crank hanger, Luther Hausmann's drive gear, Robert Piper's rocking horse tricycle, Emmit G. Latta's velocipede frame, Ole P. Peterson's luggage carrier, Adam H. Beck's pneumatic tire, Edward B. Gallaher's carbureter and Henry L. F. Trebert's brake.
- Too short or too long a reach, rather than the saddle, causes most riding discomfort; the rider should be able to place his heel on the pedal while sitting easily in the saddle.
- A Brooklyn jury before Justice Dunnell assesses $3,500 for William F. Hodges against the New York Electric Vehicle Transportation Company, for the fractured forearm and other injuries he suffered when one of its automobiles knocked him off his bicycle on Broadway in November 1899.
- Export shipments for the week closing April 9 are given port by port, Great Britain again topping the manifest with more than $25,000 — London alone taking 816 cases of bicycles — and Russia the feature of the week at some $3,700 through Moscow and St. Petersburg.
- A rider describes coasting with the cranks horizontal and the forward heel turned inward onto the screwed crank pin, giving a rest to both feet, taking weight off the saddle and steadying the machine.
- The clean-up of two defunct Chicago factories will throw some thirty thousand bicycles on the market through a Chicago-New York department store, which is scouring the country for job-lot equipment and has already bought three lots of ancient tires.
- With the closing of the house that represented the Columbia-Morgan Handle Bar Co. in New York, the Willis Park Row Cycle Co. has acquired some six thousand of those bars at a price that will let it meet competition.
- Shareholders in the Simpson Chain Co., exploiter of the English chain that was to revolutionise chain making, are to receive a trifle more than two cents on the dollar as liquidation closes.
- William Jessop & Sons of Sheffield will erect a steel plant at Pittsburg, but too late for the cycle trade: American tool steel and case-hardened machinery steel have almost entirely displaced Jessop's and Sanderson's for cups and cones.
- Christopher Caffrey of Claremont, N. H., has completed additions to his repair shop, adding steam power, a dynamo and a nickelplating plant, and now takes automobile, buggy and sulky work as well as bicycles.
- The B. F. Goodrich Co.'s pensive maiden and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.'s plump black-haired beauty make their yearly debut as posters, of generous size and undisfigured by advertising matter.
- Detroit is moving for a lamp law that would apply not only to bicycles but to automobiles and rubber-tired carriages.
- Herman Fontenie of Auburn, N. Y., patents a tire of springs clamped to a light steel rim under a heavy canvas cover, claimed to be lighter than rubber, to outwear it and to cost half as much.