The Bicycling World, Vol 52, No 26
Articles in this issue
- The Pope Mfg. Co. has renewed its bottom bracket patent suit against Arnold, Schwinn & Co. of Chicago, filed December 16, 1903, after the Chicago makers refused to join the amicable agreement other manufacturers signed. Dormant suits against two jobbers, the Fletcher Hardware Co. of Detroit and the Norvell-Shapleigh Hardware Co. of St. Louis, are also being revived.
- Patents No. 582,540 and 612,701, issued to Oscar Mueller of Decatur, Ill. in 1897 and to F. W. Canfield of Manistee, Mich. in 1898, have been bought by interests representing the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, who claim they cover all annular and non-fouling spark plugs and have served royalty notice on all who use them.
- Reports that L. D. Parker, former president of the Hartford Rubber Works Co., was re-entering the tire trade are quashed: he has bought the controlling interest in the Springfield Elevator and Pump Co. of Springfield, Mass., and is its president and secretary, with former Hartford superintendent F. H. Turner also involved.
- An involuntary bankruptcy petition was filed this week against the Milwaukee Rubber Works of Cudahy, Wis., maker of single tube tires under a variety of brands; the chief petitioner is William Becker, whose claim amounts to $100,000.
- The Cycle Parts and Accessories Association has called a meeting for May 9th at Buffalo, chosen as a central and convenient point for both the eastern and western trade.
- The American Racycle, Novelty & Mfg. Co. of the Pacific Coast has incorporated in San Francisco, Cal., with $30,000 capital; H. O. Coughlan, J. R. Turner and D. S. Mantz are named as incorporators.
- George W. Sherman, who for five years travelled for the Hendee Mfg. Co. selling Indian motorcycles, becomes sales manager of the Reading Standard Cycle Mfg. Co. under proprietor Remppis; Hendee presented him with a gold watch on his departure.
- A. M. Scheffey has resigned as secretary of the National Cycle Trade Association with no successor in sight, the association's finances reportedly being in such a state that the "ghost has not walked" for some three months.
- A correspondent signing himself "A Colonial Cyclist" replies to "Missouri Kicker" of February 24th, blaming lapsed riding on riders' ignorance of how to adjust and maintain a machine; he urges makers to pack an instruction booklet with every bicycle, to list coaster brake, cushion frame and two-speed models in their catalogues, and to court women riders with the dropped frame machine.
- George R. Broadbent of Melbourne, Australia, compares British and American practice, noting the Stanley show's large proportion of free wheels and variable gears against America's near-universal coaster brake, and argues from his own riding that a light fixed-gear machine of about 90 inches remains the most responsive mount.
- A leader praising W. E. Metzger of Detroit for a blotter advertisement headed "How to make money on a $50 investment," which sets out a three-year account crediting car fare and time saved against the price and repairs of a bicycle to show a net profit of $365.45.
- A leader on Bouhours' 815 miles 291 yards in twenty-four hours, an average of about thirty-four miles an hour, complaining that so stupendous a ride passes unnoticed while columns are given to balloon flights and to automobiles that merely sprint a mile.
- An argument that present-day riders have ceased to take pride in the upkeep of their mounts, and that brushing off dust, rubbing over the enamel and going round the spokes with an oily rag after each run keeps a machine's finish, life and serviceability up and its repair bills down.
- A letter from Melbourne dated February 16 confirms that Iver Lawson quit Australia because the combined promoters would offer only $31 per program in appearance money, while Floyd McFarland stayed on to contest a 21-mile road race from Sale, in the Gippsland district, worth $1,000 to the winner.
- Chairman Roland Douglas of the F.A.M. Competition Committee objected to the "American straightaway," "Southern" and "Interstate Florida-Georgia" championships billed for W. J. Morgan's Atlantic-Pablo beach tournament near Jacksonville, Florida, April 9 to 12; Morgan agreed to restyle them "speed trials."
- Secretary Wehman of the Federation of American Motorcyclists has received a membership application from a rider in Esterhazy, Saskatchewan, evidence that the rigors of the Far North are no bar to the spread of motorcycling.
- At the National Cycling Association's annual meeting at the Hotel Bartholdi, New York, team work in handicap races was abolished and riders' whole last-year team turned professional, including Fred Ernst of Rochester, Edward Rupprecht and Charles Franks of Newark and Charles A. Sherwood of New York, who is appealing; A. G. Batchelder was re-elected president.
- Fuller details of Emil Bouhours' twenty-four-hour record at Paris, where behind six pacing motorcycles he covered 815 miles 291 yards, beating A. E. Walters' 1899 figure of 634 miles by over 181 miles; his knees gave way in the cold and he made only nineteen miles in the twenty-third hour, with Arthur Vanderstuyft and Henri Contenet his competitors.
- The first of a series explaining why European designers adopted the magneto while American machines have kept to the dry battery, illustrating magnetism with a horseshoe magnet and iron filings on a sheet of glass and setting out lines of force, poles and the generation of alternating current.
- The Persons Manufacturing Company of Worcester, Mass., announces the Persons Motor Seat No. 2, weighing three pounds and measuring twelve and a half inches long by nine and a half wide, with a drop forged clamp, a V-shaped lower truss spring and oil-tempered springs; 1906 contracts are placed by the Thomas Auto-Bi Company, Consolidated Mfg. Co. and American Motor Co.
- Colonel Fox of the London Salvage Corps has brought out a method of welding rods of steel around a core under a powerful hammer, a process once used on the axle steels of the London and Northwestern Railway Company, producing tough non-fibrous metal without grain or continuous fibre.
- An English daily quotes a Coventry dealer's letter to a Member of Parliament praising his espousal of the cause of Ireland, closing with a postscript offering to supply the M.P. or a member of his family with a cycle at half-price — cited as an example of how the trade "drums up" business.
- St. Paul, Minn., has realized that bicycles can be used to advantage by its police force, and will equip a squad of seven men with them for summer duty.
- A picture page of two photographs showing scenes at the recent motorcycle meet held on the beach at Long Beach, Cal.
- Marcel Dupuis, the young Frenchman who took the individual championship at the Century Road Club of America's meet, made the best quarter-mile roller time trial at the Roy Wheelmen's clubhouse on West Twenty-sixth street, New York, on Sunday 18th inst., clocked at 19 3/5 seconds ahead of Henri Evheveque, F. L. Valiant and Robert Roullier.
- On the recommendation of the Philadelphia Motorcycle Club, President Betts of the Federation of American Motorcyclists has appointed Frank Shaw to the National Competition Committee, completing a body whose other members are Roland Douglas of New York as chairman, J. A. Turner of Chicago, John Hurck of St. Louis and C. C. Hopkins of San Francisco.
- Printed above an item that in fact reports Robert J. Walthour beating Caesar Simar at the velodrome de la Fleche, France, on Sunday 4th inst., Walthour rushing the final heat of the twenty-kilometre motor paced race and leaving Simar several laps behind.
- The world's championship dates have been moved from August 12, 16 and 19 to July 29 and August 5, the meet to be held on the Junction track at Geneva, Switzerland; the change makes it probable that Kramer will represent America and still return in time for the National circuit championship.
- The New York and New Jersey divisions of the Century Road Club of America hold their annual dinner on Thursday evening, March 29th, at Terrace Garden, Fifty-eighth street near Third avenue, New York City, in appreciation of ex-president Peter A. Dyer.
- At the Parc des Princes track, Paris, on Sunday 11th inst., Rene Thomas on an Alcyon covered 56 miles 1,685 yards in the hour against the old record of 55 miles 1,520 yards, only for Pernette on a 110-pound machine to ride 59 miles 801 yards inside the hour; Anzani fell at fifty miles an hour but was not injured.
- Delegate Byrd rewrote the Virginia registration bill to apply only to automobiles, so bicycles and motorcycles escape the $2 fee, numbers, rear lamps, four-mile-an-hour crawl past tollgates and the duty to give names to any constable; the act is passed and the legislature has adjourned for two years.
- M. E. Toepel told the New York Motorcycle Club that carburetters are given too much hot air, which thins the charge, and argued that heat should be applied inside the carburetter close to the jet or spray nozzle rather than by jacketing the whole instrument, citing the Thor, Indian, Canda quadricycle and Longuemare types.
- A cycle traveler predicts that within two years many of the ex-bicycle men who floated or broke into the automobile trade, now "doing the heavy" with turned-up trousers and turned-down gloves, will be looking for jobs again in the bicycle business.
- Captain John Wuensch of the Bay View Wheelmen of Newark, N. J., has mapped out the club's 1906 riding schedule, from Avondale on April 22 through moonlight runs to Newark, Chatham and the Oranges, a corn feast at Linden on September 18 and a closing hare and hound chase on October 28.
- The Roy Wheelmen of New York will decide their club championship by a five-mile road race at Valley Stream on Sunday, April 15, followed by handicaps from ten to fifty miles between May 13 and September 9; the club voted to return to its old orange and black colors and elected F. L. Valiant chairman of the racing board.