The Bicycling World, Vol 53, No 12
Articles in this issue
- W. H. Burgess, manager of A. G. Spalding & Bros' New York bicycle department, argues that thoughtless cutting and plugging of punctured tires destroys the fabric and drives riders off their machines, and urges dealers to use "jiffy" sealant instead.
- President Roosevelt signs the denatured alcohol bill, effective 1 January 1907; the full text of the Act is printed, and the Standard Oil Co. promptly raises gasolene a cent, the third increase since the beginning of the year.
- A traveling man suggests cycle dealers going to the Federation of American Motorcyclists meet at Rochester, N. Y., should study George L. Miner's bicycle store there, "a study in white and gold," as a model shop.
- J. W. Leavitt & Co. finish a new establishment at 415 Golden Gate avenue and C. C. Hopkins a new "shack" at 729 Gough street, among the first San Francisco cycle dealers to rebuild.
- France quietly altered its bicycle duties in April to $22.25 per cwt. under the maximum tariff and $21.32 under the minimum, with 4 per cent of the value of the goods added in each case.
- An American shaft-driven motor bicycle is reported well under way for the 1907 season, one of the Western factories being credited with the work.
- Explains the old shop conundrum of why a long-handled screwdriver loosens a stubborn screw more easily, using the analogy of two boys balancing a baseball bat and a clothes pole on their fingers: the advantage is ease of guiding the blade, not leverage.
- Worn files can be resharpened by cleaning with a file card, immersion in hot lye, a pure water rinse, then one to ten minutes in equal parts nitric and sulphuric acid diluted with five or six times its bulk of water.
- Hydrometer percentage readings give an arbitrary Baumme-scale equivalent rather than specific gravity; convert from a table first, then multiply by 62.35 to obtain the weight per cubic foot.
- 117 bicycles were reported stolen in Buffalo, N. Y., during May - almost four a day - with few recovered; the paper blames owners' negligence, lax police supervision and a ready second-hand market rather than an organized gang.
- The Veeder Co. has devised a cyclometer "striker" to fit the larger, heavier spokes of the 1906 motorcycles, which had forced dealers to file old strikers to fit, and is also making its cyclometer cases heavier.
- Recommends reviving the old trick of pressing the foot on the front tire when a chain breaks, since a parted chain also takes away the rear coaster brake.
- Captain Bert Harding's call brought twenty-one St. Louis Cycling Club riders over the De Soto road on Sunday 10 June; President W. M. Butler left at 2:30 Saturday and got lost, gears ran from 56 to 87 inches, and cushion frames were found a great comfort.
- Only three riders started the twenty-mile handicap road race at Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Decoration Day, and all three took prizes - Brad Jones a National bicycle, Keen a pair of Hartford tires and Bittner from scratch a good prize.
- An editorial condemning chronic use of the muffler cut-out as motorcycling's most insidious enemy, and urging makers, dealers and clubs to act before police raids and drastic laws are provoked.
- An editorial contrasting Britain's carrier tricycles, cycling newsboys and thousands of postoffice bicycles with America, where only the police departments have really recognised the bicycle's utility.
- The rain-delayed opening meet at Ogden, Utah, on 9 and 10 June: Hardy Downing of San Jose took the mile open and the five-mile motorpaced from Iver Redman, and Joseph Fogler of Brooklyn beat W. E. Samuelson from scratch in the mile handicap.
- Chester Green of Waltham won both first place and the time prize in 40:52 2/5 in the Waltham (Mass.) Motorcycle Club's 25-mile road race on 9 June; L. B. Marsh of Brockton fell and suspended rider A. A. Hoyt's "record" attempt broke down.
- The Brower Wheelmen of New York held their quarterly meet at Smith's quarter-mile oval, Valley Stream, L. I.: F. Burden won the mile handicap off 210 yards and Charles Schlosser the three-mile from scratch man M. Simmons.
- Of ninety-three entries for the British Land's End to John-o'-Groat's run, fifty are multi-cylinder machines against forty-three singles; the 889 miles are to be covered in six days.
- E. F. Root, winner of the last two six-day races, beat roller-skating champion Frank Delmont over two miles at Madison Square Garden, the skater proving no match for the cyclist.
- Calendar of race meets, road races, tours and record runs from 17 June to 29 November 1906, including the F. A. M. annual meet and championships at Rochester, N. Y., and the world's championships at Geneva.
- More than three thousand watched Iver Lawson beat Floyd McFarland in the three-mile lap race at Salt Lake City on 9 June; Australian W. Pedlar Palmer won the half-mile invitation and Joe Fogler of Brooklyn the half-mile handicap, with Arthur Gardiner looking on.
- Denver's second meet of the season drew a large crowd: E. W. Smith beat Ed Schwartz over five miles motorpaced in three heats, Henry Warnecke won both amateur events and Victor Anderson the five-mile motorcycle race.
- Stanley Bowmar left Buffalo on a Merkel motor bicycle for a leisurely three or four month run to San Francisco, having taken road directions from cross-continent record-holder W. C. Chadeayne, and hopes to win an F. A. M. mileage medal.
- The full program of the F. A. M. annual meet at Rochester, N. Y., 4-6 July: mile, five-mile and a first-ever one-hour championship, a 24-mile road race on the Henrietta road, and a Dug-out hill climb using the piston-displacement formula.
- London newsboys carry 40-pound bundles thirty-five to forty miles a day for about $6 a week, must pay their own repairs of some twenty-five cents a week and half of all speeding fines, and are fined for punctures and other delays.
- Forty-three riders met at the Y. M. C. A. building on South Hill street on Friday 8 June to form a new Los Angeles Motorcycle Club, with C. H. Day chairman, Marian Smith secretary and F. L. Morrison temporary captain.
- Harold F. Missimer, 17, of the Park Circle Club won the twenty-mile "Brooklyn Handicap" on Long Island off 9 minutes 30 seconds in his first race, riding a Columbia geared to 88; Louis J. Weintz of the New York A. C. took first time prize in 58:05.
- Wind and a threatened storm cut short the Vailsburg board track meet of 10 June and killed the unknown-distance feature; S. W. Fenn won the mile open from Alfred Ashurst by a foot and George Glasson the two-mile handicap.
- Frank Mihlon of Newark, N. J., holds the diamond-set slab of gold that Salt Lake "fans" gave Iver Lawson at the close of the 1904 season; some Newarkers now want a subscription raised for a similar token for Frank Kramer.
- Frank Kramer lost to Gabriel Poulain at the Velodrome Buffalo on 31 May but won the international match at the Parc des Princes on 3 June; Louis Mettling and James F. Moran met Rugere in motorpaced heats and Oscar Schwab won $5.79 in a lap race.
- Jack Prince has built a new track at Piedmont Park, Atlanta, Ga., in partnership with Robert J. Walthour; Walthour beat "Tommy" Hall in motorpaced matches on two successive nights before crowds of more than 4,000.
- Kramer, sick and tired of Europe, will sail from France on 4 July when his contract expires and will not stay for the world's championships, disappointing friends who wanted him to take the highest title.
- Harry Pollok, associated with P. T. Powers, gives assurance that Madison Square Garden will reopen for bicycle racing about the middle of August, for a few weeks only.
- Kramer's four-cornered match race at Nantes on 3 June collapsed into a riot: Poulain, Schilling and Otto Meyer refused to ride and were fined 500 francs each, chairs and bottles were thrown, and police and gendarmes escorted Kramer to his dressing rooms.
- John Bedell, elder of the "Me and Jawn" team, is suspended for a month for "reprehensible conduct" after telling the Vailsburg management and referee what he thought of them over prize money held up on 3 June.
- Great Britain now has a National Cycle Camping Club, organized at a London meeting late last month, alongside the Cycle Campers' Association, whose last gathering pitched 27 tents.
- Four years of French road-tarring results from engineers Heude, Sigault, Vasseur and Arnaud: dust and mud largely suppressed, a net gain of a cent per square yard on upkeep, and descriptions of J. Lassailly's tar boiler and tar-laying carriage.
- An old lady's account of a cycling accident - her friend was going fast downhill, came on a flock of geese and "gave up the handles."
- Argues that spark timing should be set by engine speed alone and power varied by the throttle, since any fixed spark setting is correct at only one speed and otherwise wastes fuel through back pressure or an overheated exhaust valve and cylinder.
- Weekly digest of newly issued patents with their claims, including George H. Cheney's driving and coasting mechanism, Emanuel Grimme's cycle-tire armor, Bohumil Tulka's handle-bar, Robert Conrad's ball-bearings, Lucius J. Phelps's muffler and Sweeney and Mayes's bicycle-seat spring.