The Bicycling World, Vol 43, No 24
Articles in this issue
- New England dealers launch the Equitable Distributing Co. at 170 Summer street, Boston, a co-operative cash purchasing agency headed by Lud C. Havener (president), G. H. Brown (treasurer) and Arthur Sidwell (secretary), with over 200 dealers already signed up to cut out middlemen's profits.
- German steel-tube makers form a syndicate, to be incorporated as a limited company, fixing each factory's output quota and routing overproduction through a central committee.
- G. A. A. Bennett, managing director of the Universal Trading Co., Ltd., Birmingham, England, arrives in New York next week seeking American motor bicycles and offering British representation.
- The city of New York wins a $524 judgment against the Circle Cycle Co., and the State Central Savings Bank of Keokuk, Iowa, takes $1,000 against the receiver of the Fanning Ball Bearing Chain Co.
- The Rubber Goods Manufacturing Company declares its regular 1.5 per cent preferred dividend but defers action on the common stock, sending the shares down nearly 2 points to 29 7/8 on 2,200 shares traded.
- St. Catharines, Ont., cannot unload the defunct Co-operative Cycle & Motor Co., and the Imperial Insurance Co. has cancelled its $5,000 policy on the plant, with other underwriters expected to follow.
- Six motor bicycles start in Class D of the Automobile Club's New York-to-Buffalo endurance run — Ferguson on a Thomas Auto-Bi, Hedstrom on an Indian, Metz on an Orient and three Regas riders — with Hedstrom forced out after breaking his front fork in the sand near Crotona, and all attempting the 17 per cent Nelson Hill at Peekskill.
- A Cycle Trader discourse distinguishes brake horsepower (B. H. P.) from indicated horsepower (I. H. P.), explains what their difference reveals about mechanical efficiency, and traces the 33,000 foot-pound unit back to James Watt's mine pumping engines; interleaved with an Albany dispatch on the second day's run.
- Following the judgment in Williamson vs. Rover Cycle Co., Ltd., the British Cycle Manufacturers' Trade Protection Association issues an amended guarantee, printed in full, that excludes hired-out machines, limits cover to one year and defines the term 'agent' narrowly.
- A traveller reports sundry sales holding up despite falling cycling interest, citing a single jobber's order for one thousand gross of rubber frame guards taken on draft against bill of lading.
- British prints report that M. D. Rucker, once of the Humber Co. and ex-partner of 'Plunger' Hooley, is somewhere in this country, though on what mission they do not say.
- The Broadway Bicycle and Sundry Co. of New York adds hardware specialties and kitchenware, keeping its existing name.
- Facing resistance to its prices in Australia, the Dunlop company is marketing the Oceanic there as a good wearing tire at a low price.
- An editorial attacking rival cycling papers that yoke the bicycle to the automobile, arguing dealers lack the capital and floor space for cars and pledging that the flag of cycling is nailed fast to the Bicycling World masthead.
- An editorial commending the British Cycle Manufacturers' Trade Protective Association warranty to American makers, particularly its exclusion of rental 'knockabouts' and its restriction of cover to machines bought from the maker or an authorized agent.
- C. A. Persons of the Royal Motor Works reports up to twenty-five replies a day from Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and England to his advertisement in the Bicycling World's export edition, before the French and Spanish editions had even shipped.
- An editorial urging cycle dealers to write personal letters to customers when new or seasonable goods arrive, citing a dry goods merchant who twice yearly mailed longhand letters with calico and muslin samples to farmers' wives.
- A London letter of Aug. 28 on George Gibson's design putting the motor chamber in place of the crank bracket, the absence of a small De Dion engine for two-wheelers, valve troubles on Werner motors, and Van Hooydonk's large partitioned petrol-and-oil tank with a lubricating pump.
- A traveller finds job lots unsaleable in the small towns and says Eastern cities are now the best place to unload, including a 'Storage Co.' advertising goods seized for storage charges.
- Ulysses Grant Scott of Newport, R. I., one of the few negro cycle dealers in the country, runs two stores and rents his four quads, three tricycles and two motor bicycles at $7.50 a day.
- Switzer & Co., the leading dealers in Cebu, write that Philippine native demand is 'simply marvellous' and that they cannot get bicycles fast enough to supply it.
- B. Sumi of the cycle-importing house R. Sumi & Co., Osaka, Japan, is at sea en route to New York on a buying trip, due to arrive about November 1.
- Fred Campbell tells a Kansas City paper the trade now has two selling seasons, that the bicycle has become standard so riders keep wheels until worn out, and that free machines for racers, salaried crack riders and instalment sales have all given way to cash.
- John Kearns of Akron, Ohio, is the American superintendent imported to run the Dunlop Tire Co.'s newly established Australian factory, and his arrival in Melbourne is warmly noted.
- Joseph L. Yost of Toledo heads the newly organized Yost-Miller Co., making electrical supplies and novelties in part of the former Yost bicycle factory.
- Frank T. Hoover files in the United States District Court at Pittsburg, Pa., with liabilities of $5,620.49 against assets of $1,000.
- Natal, South Africa, supports a number of cycle agents and a few local assemblers building machines from mostly British-made parts.
- The Connecticut Fibre Co. will probably erect a Bridgeport, Conn., plant to make a non-puncturable or armored tire for bicycles and automobiles.
- English cycle export statistics rose again in July, from £41,006 in 1900 to £49,856 in 1901, following gains in May and June.
- The Hartford Rubber Works Co. has bought a considerable tract adjoining its present plant, implying a corresponding enlargement of its facilities.
- Johnny Nelson dies at Bellevue Hospital after the Madison Square Garden motor-paced smash with Jimmy Michael; also Major Taylor's championship wins at Charles River Park, Walthour beating Elkes over 15 miles, Michael's record 20 miles at Revere Beach, and the Lawson-Kramer runover at Vailsburg. Continued on page 12.
- The Patent Office's report for the fiscal year to June 1901 is the greatest on record — 42,082 mechanical applications, 26,481 patents granted, receipts of $1,408,877.67 against expenditures of $1,288,970.13 — with full comparative tables back to 1892.
- A correspondent of the Iron Age complains that English firms seeking American agencies receive only circulars, trade lists and catalogues instead of letters making responsible provisional offers.
- A Parisian firm introduces a forecarriage that replaces a bicycle's front wheel and converts it into a tricycle with a passenger seat in front, as in a motor quad.
- A dealer recommends taking a monthly inventory to reveal which goods sell, which stock should be moved by bargain, and what staples need reordering.
- Richard Hammond, a coach builder, dies in England at seventy-three; he claimed to have built the first pedal-and-crank bicycle in England, a wood and iron machine partly copied from a French illustration in a technical paper.
- Abstracts of seven new grants, including George T. Martin's variable-speed gearing for bicycles, a spring-spoked wheel from Breda, Netherlands, Charles H. Wanee's sparking igniter, Ricard and Gary's sparking plug of Toulouse, and Carl Loper's muffler for steam or gas motors.
- Trade changes at Mattapan, Mass. (Walter Thompson to Barden Cycle Co.), Massena, N. Y., and Cleveland, O.; fires at A. Hunter's in Superior, Wis., and Lombardi's in Ansonia, Conn.; and the death of H. J. Davison of Cotton & Davison, Bath, N. Y.
- The Athleta Cycle Co. of Cleveland, O., incorporates at $125,000, and the Washington (D. C.) Auto-Vehicle Co. incorporates in Wilmington, Del., at $1,000,000 under president J. Sprigg Poole.
- A note arguing that a drop or two of oil at short intervals lubricates a bearing far better than a thimbleful two or three times a year, which merely floods and runs out.
- American cycle exports for the week closing September 3, itemised by port and value — British Australia 40 cases at $1,736, British possessions in Africa 29 cases at $1,126, Copenhagen 72 cases of bicycles at $700, and shipments to Japan, Havre, London, Liverpool, Cuba and the Philippines.
- A note warning that a chain allowed to run too loose damages both chain and sprocket wheels and troubles the rider.