The Bicycling World, Vol 52, No 21
Articles in this issue
- Combination Hubs, Ltd., the British syndicate holding the 1898 Hocquhard (No. 9817) and Lake (No. 20,891) coaster-brake patents, won a January 29th London Chancery Court judgment against Seabrook Bros., who handled an American coaster brake; the court held the substance of both combinations had been taken and ordered damages assessed.
- Seven makes of motorcycle were exhibited at the Chicago automobile show, four of them not shown in New York: the Armac, the Fowler-Manson-Sherman Manson, the Hornecker Torpedo and the Harley-Davidson, the Armac notable for converting between belt and chain drive in five minutes via the Brown yielding gear wheel.
- The Excelsior Supply Co. of Chicago has leased the new three-story building going up at 1436-38 Michigan avenue and will add a retail department when it takes possession.
- Despite years of reports of bicycle factories in Japan, exactly one plant exists in the empire, located in Tokio and turning out about 400 bicycles a month.
- J. M. Linscott of the Boston Cycle & Sundry Co. has incorporated the Linscott Sporting Goods Co. with $5,000 capital, W. A. Bragdon as president and Linscott himself as treasurer.
- Trade changes: E. R. Pickard retires from the Queen City Cycle Co. of Wilmington, N.C., leaving W. J. Moore to continue, and Charles E. Phinney of Bangor, Me., has removed to a new store.
- The Diamond Rubber Co. has closed its Atlanta, Ga., branch, leaving the Fisk depot there as the only direct factory branch south of Washington.
- An inventor has contrived a clamp-on auxiliary air valve for carburetters not originally fitted with one, applied to the inlet pipe between mixing chamber and throttle by simply cutting a hole in the intake.
- The Fisk Rubber Co. is now building its mechanically fastened tire in a motorcycle size, its cross-wise metal sleeves and T-headed bolts clamping the beads into a solid mass so the inner tube cannot be pinched against the rim.
- The Volcano Torch Co. of Erie, Pa., offers a gasolene torch that dispenses with the air pump and starting cup, using an ordinary lamp burner as its base and a brazed, staybolted steel cylinder rated to 2,000 pounds per square inch.
- The Persons Mfg. Co. sorts out the confusion between its Royal motor seat and its Maximus saddle: the motor seat is far larger and heavier, and the Miami Cycle & Mfg. Co. of Middletown, Ohio, holds exclusive rights to the Maximus.
- Periodical misfiring followed by long spells of regular running is often traced to loosening of the platinum in the commutator blade or spring, or to a loose carbon pole in a battery cell.
- An essay on the motorcyclist who cannot leave his machine alone, blaming abnormal repair bills on amateur "tinkeritis" and warning that the veteran sufferer's perpetually dismantled mount becomes a public object lesson against the motorcycle.
- The designer of the Parson's kerosene engine has invented a four-piece pet cock — screw bushing, valve spindle, control lever and helical spring — whose loose thread lets it double as a non-return valve for injecting gasolene while the motor runs.
- The Rekrab, just put on the English market, is a two-cylinder motor whose cylinders are segments of an annular ring and which has no connecting rods, the pistons being fixed to pivoted offset arms slotted over the crank pins.
- A new foreign model mounts its ignition cutout under the saddle so the rider's weight closes the contact and dismounting breaks it automatically, sparing him the grip or finger switch.
- An editorial rebuking the "twenty dollar man" quoted in an Iowa paper as saying nobody bothers about 1906 models, arguing that ten bicycles are sold for every automobile and that talking $40 and $50 wheels, coaster brakes and two-speed gears helps sales.
- Taking up E. M. Estabrook's letter printed elsewhere in the number, the editors argue that subscribing to the trade papers is what divides the merchant from the mere shopkeeper whose shop is himself.
- Urges the dealer to get below the surface of his own books and his salesmen's reports rather than accept general accounts, since a line that is not selling may only need its value explained to buyers.
- E. M. Estabrook of Bangor, Maine, recalls buying a solid-tired Rambler in 1890 and taking an agency from pioneer agent E. H. Corson, and credits the paper with rescuing him when the cement-clogged valves of his first pneumatic tires would not take air.
- H. A. Gliesman of the Tiger Cycle Works reports gross returns up some $1,500 on 1905 despite a change of location, credits the motorcycle department, and predicts 1906 will repeat 1901-2 when ordinary riders suddenly took to the safety.
- Besides the L'Hommedieu bill's $1-per-horsepower tax, a New York measure drawn up with the Automobile Club of America and the West End Improvement Association would create a State commission with power to revoke licenses, but the F.A.M. has secured motorcycles' exemption.
- Salt Lake City's Western Racing Cyclists' Union blacklisted Edward F. Root at its organizing meeting, made Hardy Downing secretary and Walter Bardgett chairman, elected John Chapman walking delegate, and backed John Sharp for N.C.A. handicapper at the Salt Palace.
- The County Roads and Bridges Committee of Warwickshire voted $200 per capita for motorcycles for its inspectors — the same sum previously allowed each man for horse hire — the machines remaining county property until the user leaves office.
- A. G. Armstrong, chosen from the ranks of the Century Road Club of America to succeed P. A. Dyer as president, is a chainless enthusiast geared to "high C" with long cranks and 30-inch wheels who still rides in the fastest sprint of a road race.
- Frank L. Kramer of East Orange, N.J., will ride a Peugeot instead of his Pierce while abroad, having signed with Paris promoters Beyer & Coquelle for reportedly twice the $40 a week the George N. Pierce Co. paid him; he sails for France about March 15th.
- A Paris scheme divides handicap entrants into about six classes that ride their heats on even terms, each winner starting the final from his actual mark, so the final is a true handicap instead of bunches separated by yards of daylight.
- From February 1st the use of horns in Holland is restricted to motor cars, ending the spectacle of a small boy on a small bicycle tooting a big automobile horn.
- Century Road Club of America members reported 40,496 miles and 684 centuries in 1905 with no mileage prizes offered; William J. Hampshire of San Jose led with 11,826 miles and 73 centuries, Thomas W. Davis of Peoria was second, and four members passed the 100-century mark.
- Australian papers show Iver Lawson ($665) and Floyd McFarland ($490) placing in nearly every race, McFarland taking a five-mile at Sydney in 10:45, while W. E. Samuelson and the imported Germans Walter Rutt and Henri Mayer struggle to get into the money.
- Nathaniel Butler, formerly of Cambridge, Mass., decisively beat Lorgeou and Bruni in an hour's paced race at the Paris winter track, covering 50 miles 1,489 yards for a new European indoor record; Oscar Schwab rode a tandem relay at the same meet.
- The Albany Bicycle Club chose Frank E. Snyder president, Richard O'Connor vice-president, Carroll F. Smith treasurer and William Lamb recording secretary, with Charles H. Gehnrich sergeant-at-arms.
- In his latest book Rudyard Kipling praises an engineer by saying that, left alone with a jar of oil, he could persuade "a free-wheel bicycle to do typewriting."
- Munich's new track at Milbertshofen, three miles out, will be two-thirds of a kilometer to the lap, banked 19 feet, between 30 and 40 feet wide, and will seat 35,000 spectators.
- A picture page showing a boy riding his bicycle over a companion stretched out on the hard Florida sand, captioned "How the Florida Pickaninny Earned an Honest Penny."
- The Hon. Leopold Canning says he is giving up motor cars entirely for tricars, which climb better and need no chauffeur, while another motorist finds a 40-horsepower car tame beside the soul-stirring flight of a fast motor bicycle.
- An English school teacher unseated when a fowl hurtled out of a hedge into his wheel won 30 shillings ($6.10) from the farmer, the National Cycling Union prosecuting and the judge holding owners responsible for the vagaries of their stock.
- A motorcyclist out of matches can connect the secondary wire to a spare plug laid on the cylinder head, make a torch of waste or rag in a cleft stick, soak it in gasolene and fire it from the spark.
- A foreign authority on V-belt slip: resin glazes under friction heat and treacle is little better, both attacking the leather, whereas resting the belt untensioned, scraping and degreasing the V sides and dressing them with collan or castor oil restores the drive.
- C. C. Hopkins writes that he has carried a gradeometer on his motorcycle's top bar for two years, finds it settles arguments about the percentage of a hill, and notes they sell for about $1.50.
- W. E. Bauman of the Ariel Athletic Club won both the two-mile handicap from scratch, in 5:19 3-5, nailing V. Barrett almost at the tape, and the five-mile open from J. M. Tanner and E. Delling at the 65th Regiment Armory in Buffalo on February 9th.
- How vaudeville trick riders train with the rope-and-pulley "mechanic" for the pirouette, worming through the diamond frame and somersaulting over a table; Minnie Kaufman, credited world's champion woman rider with 11 years' experience, stars with the Kaufmans at the New York Hippodrome.
- The week's grants include Charles H. Claudel's carburetter for hydrocarbon engines (811,618), Charles Glover's bearing assigned to the Corbin Screw Corporation (811,630), Charles P. L. Noxon's spark-coil (811,656) and Lester L. Sidwell's pneumatic tire protector (812,373).