The Bicycling World, Vol 54, No 12
Articles in this issue
- The National Association of Bicycle Jobbers, revived by secretary F. I. Willis to more than 50 members since its Atlantic City organization, promulgates a tire guarantee for the jobbers' 1907 catalogues; it covers only defective material or workmanship and expires on December 31st of the year of sale, shifting part of the burden from jobber to dealer.
- Ralph D. Webster, secretary of the Eclipse Machine Co., says demand is about three times greater than a year ago and that Morrow orders are arriving unusually early; the company will push its motorcycle brake harder and add a matching front hub.
- C. H. Ballew, a consulting engineer, has taken over as general manager of the Miami Cycle & Mfg. Co. of Middletown, Ohio, where Racycle output is to be doubled and several new buildings erected, including a foundry for drop forged parts.
- William Cronin, long in the Diamond Rubber Co.'s service, has been appointed manager of its Boston branch, succeeding Joseph Bennett.
- H. A. Flagg becomes Eastern sales manager of the Shelby Steel Tube Co., with headquarters in New York, succeeding R. R. Harris, who has gone to the Seamless Tube Co. of America.
- The United States Census of the bicycle industry for 1905 puts the value of products at $5,153,240 against $31,915,908 in 1900, with bicycles made falling from 1,113,039 to 227,604 and factories from 312 to 101; motorcycles alone improved, rising from 159 machines at $32,950 to 2,295 at $354,130.
- The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will build its mechanically fastened motorcycle tire in two grades instead of one — a three-ply close woven Sea Island cotton tire and the four-ply thread fabric Roadster — and is also making heavier 28 by 2 1/4 inch inner tubes; the steel rim with locking rings sells separately at $2.25.
- The Persons Manufacturing Company of Worcester, Mass., renames its motorcycle saddle the "Persons American Motor Seat" and rebuilds it with the peak set well above the cantle, so that the compound springs stay vertical even when riders shove the saddle far back and low.
- At the Grand Central Palace show in New York, F. A. Baker gave away thousands of "mule barometers" that forecast weather by the mule's tail, while G. W. Sherman of the R-S exhibit dispensed the Reading Standard "drinkable lubricating oil," which tasted like sherry.
- On tracing knocks in a gasolene motor: the most mysterious arises from a loose fly-wheel, where worn keys or bolts let it rotate slightly on the crankshaft without any looseness showing along the axis.
- The thirtieth Stanley Show, held at Agricultural Hall, London, from November 23 to December 1, offered some three hundred exhibits and few novelties beyond variable gears: the All-Speed Gear Company's infinitely variable sun-and-planet hub, two new Birmingham Small Arms hub gears, New Departure brakes from Brown Brothers, and the Sceptor Cycle Co.'s triple-fork sprung frame.
- Editorial attacking what is left of the Associated Cycling Clubs of New York for again carding a motorcycle event in the New Year's midnight road race to Tarrytown, after last year's running left three machines smashed, two men injured, a wagon overturned and pistols drawn.
- Editorial on the Madison Square Garden six-day race as the one event that draws every class in New York and wins columns from newspapers that give cycling barely a column in a year, and on what that suggests for a cycle track in the city or at Coney Island.
- Editorial welcoming the Automobile Club of Great Britain's uniform rating formula, arguing that an approximation everyone can compute would restore meaning to the horsepower figures makers print in their catalogues.
- The Automobile Club of Great Britain has issued a uniform rating formula, H.P. = D squared times N divided by 2.5, which the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has urged its members to adopt at once; compression and piston speed are treated as constants so that only piston area remains.
- An English court gave a motorcyclist $25 and costs against a liveryman whose open, unlocked shed and gate let a stored machine be stolen and about $27 of tools taken, holding the storage a bailment for valuable consideration that required proper care.
- More than 12,000 filled Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, December 8th, for the six-day "curtain raiser": Walter Rutt of Germany took the ten-mile open in 22:34 1/5 from Jack Clark and Joe Fogler, James Zanes won the quarter-mile American championship final with C. A. Sherwood heading the season standing on 20 points, and Bobby Walthour lapped Paul Guignard six times in their ten-mile motor-paced match, 16:49 1/5.
- Nat Butler won both paced races at the Velodrome Parc des Princes, Paris, on December 2nd, beating Quessard by two laps and Henri Mayer by three over 20 kilometres in 16:47, then finishing three laps up on Mayer over 30 kilometres in 25:24 3/5.
- An account of the sprint, paced, motorcycle and home-trainer events run between six-day sessions at the Garden: Jake Derosier and Fred C. Hoyt raced Indian twins twice daily, Hoyt taking seven to Derosier's four with a best mile of 1:27 4/5; Paul Guignard gave paced exhibitions behind Gus Lawson, the Cork Pullers beat the Century Road Club of America for the inter-club title, and Ike Lindsay won the half-mile colored championship in 1:10 4/5.
- Report of the Madison Square Garden six-day grind, started before 15,000 people by Tax Commissioner T. L. Hamilton's pistol and marked by two fearful spills — Hugh MacLean's scalp took eight stitches, Menus Bedell broke a collar bone and Hollister was carried off unconscious — leaving eight teams tied at 1,943.4 miles at 120 hours with Rutt and McFarland the likely victors.
- Roland Douglas, chairman of the Federation of American Motorcyclists' Competition Committee, has transferred Fred C. Hoyt and Jacob Derosier to the professional class because their Madison Square Garden match races were a purely commercial arrangement rather than a contest for the F. A. M. Championship Medal.
- The trades of the six-day riders: George Wiley of Syracuse is a district messenger boy, Krebs a wood turner, Rupprecht a machinist, Coffey of Boston a bicycle repairman, Hugh MacLean a bricklayer, Moran runs a Chelsea milk route, Patsy Logan is a laundryman and Ernest A. Pye a carpenter.