The Bicycling World, Vol 54, No 14
Articles in this issue
- George M. Hendee, president of the Hendee Mfg. Co., reports a general awakening among storekeepers to the motorcycle parcel carrier; a Springfield laundry firm that had refused to buy an Indian van bought it after one of its horses died, then sold a wagon and replaced a $2-a-day driver with an $8-a-week boy.
- George W. Sherman, sales manager of the Reading Standard Cycle Mfg. Co., slipped on the ice-covered sidewalks of Reading and fractured his right arm near the elbow, and is now signing checks with his left hand.
- The Elastro Mfg. Co. of Hartford, Conn., has been organized to manufacture a rubber compound for filling tires, with Halsey B. Philbrick as president and treasurer, Charles H. Cooley vice-president and Edward S. Young secretary.
- The Royal Motor Works Co. of Worcester, Mass., has been incorporated under Delaware law with $100,000 capital stock to produce motor cars, motorcycles and vehicles generally; the corporators are not named.
- The three-horsepower Reading Standard motor tandem has been advanced from $275 to $300 because the cost of manufacture proved greater than the original estimate.
- The Cycle Parts and Accessories Association has called a meeting for January 16th at the Hotel Knickerbocker, New York, the same date as the Cycle Manufacturers' Association meeting.
- The Pope Mfg. Co.'s report for the year ended July 31, 1906 shows earnings of $7,723,028 against expenses of $6,429,469 and a net surplus of $90,564 after extraordinary losses; President Albert A. Pope describes concentrating bicycle manufacture from five plants into three and soon two, and admits the San Francisco branch and other branches proved unprofitable.
- The Ovington Motor Co., moving to 2202 Broadway, New York, is importing the Belgian F. N. carburetter with warm-air inlet, hand-operated auxiliary air valve and a filter plug that unscrews to a gauze cup; the F. N. four-cylinder motor is now rated 4 1/2 horsepower at 1,800 r.p.m.
- A French firm's new frame sets the seat pillar directly above the rear sprocket, with a curved strut to the fore part of the frame and an arched member to the bent tube, claimed to give stability, less front-wheel vibration, better hill-climbing and less chain friction.
- The G. W. Cole Co., makers of 3-in-One oil, put a profit-sharing plan into effect on Christmas Day, paying bonuses distributed on the basis of wages to employees at both the New York office and the Rahway, N. J., factory.
- The "Fauto-Casor" is a bicycle with a bucket seat mounted over the rear wheel and inclined backward for a half-reclining posture, its crank hanger raised nearly two feet above the ground so the pedals barely clear the front wheel and the down tube disappears altogether.
- Pouring kerosene through a ball bearing without spinning the parts leaves debris behind and dilutes the oil put in afterward, so the bearing should be dismounted and cleaned thoroughly or not at all.
- Small rubber balls of several sizes are suggested for packing batteries into their case, giving a resilient bed instead of waste or folded cloth and stopping the cells jolting against the sides, particularly for accumulators.
- The Prospect Motor Mfg. Co. of Brooklyn, N. Y., is preparing to market the Simplex speed indicator, a friction-wheel instrument driven off the front tire that fits wheels of all diameters, registers 1 to 42 miles an hour and will list at $5.
- A choked muffler is a common and unsuspected cause of lost power, especially where it takes the full blast of dust and mud thrown from the front wheel, and should be watched and occasionally cleaned.
- A tire rusted to a steel rim can often be removed intact by wetting the joint with gasolene, but as the gasolene also attacks the rubber it must be used carefully and cleaned off at once.
- Comment on the lengthy petition for amateur reinstatement filed with the National Cycling Association by the young Californian who rode last year's six-day race, arguing that the line between professional and amateur is financial gain and that once crossed there should be no return.
- An argument that the bicycle has been a potent force in building the suburbs of modern communities, prompted by a magazine tribute to the residential growth of Long Island, and that the taste for out-of-doors it created outlasted the cycling boom.
- An illustrated explanation of how link stretch and sprocket disalinement wear the fronts of the teeth, produce the snapping of rollers into worn pockets and the general rattle of a long chain, and finally let the chain climb the teeth and break.
- A western paper brands the free-alcohol law a "Congressional gold brick," arguing that a government inspector for every plant, a large percentage of wood alcohol as denaturant and a 500-gallon-a-day minimum put the lowest cost at 35 cents a gallon, so only manufacturers formerly handicapped by the $2.18 tax gain.
- On Christmas afternoon at Atlanta, Ga., Robert J. Walthour beat Paul Guignard, France's one and two hour record holder, in a two-heat match at five miles a heat, winning in 7:38 2/5 and 7:45; Jack Prince promoted the meet, Gus Lawson paced Walthour and John Chapman paced Guignard.
- The Prospect Wheelmen of New York have abandoned the motorcycle event of their New Year's midnight race to City Island at the urging of the Federation of American Motorcyclists; bicycle prizes include the Owen trophy, three medals, three pairs of tires, Corbin and Standard coaster brakes, a Solar lamp, a Persons saddle and a set of Poe's works.
- A portrait sketch of Louis J. Weintz of the New York Athletic Club, Prospect Park Cork Pullers and Roy Wheelmen, 21 years old, who won the Century Road Club of America's 50-mile road championship in 1904, the interborough home trainer title and the Brooklyn "Cork Pullers" championship.
- Floyd McFarland and C. B. Bloemecke have still come to no terms over the Vailsburg board track, McFarland wanting a lease and Bloemecke a percentage; McFarland sails for the Paris winter track, Robert Coquelle has signed Menus Bedell, and "Major" Taylor may return to racing abroad.
- The Scottish Cyclist relates that Hugh MacLean, after beating his compatriot Nat Butler in Paris, cabled New York claiming the world championship, and a reporter met his boat with a card reading "champion of the world, 1906."
- At Marseilles on December 15th Nat Butler won both paced races, taking the first 10 kilometres in 9:35 from Quessard and Dubois and the second in 23:43 1/5, while "Woody" Hedspeth won the sprint race from Comes, Oscar Schwab and Murger.
- Chozo Komiyama of Tokio is for the second successive year national professional champion of Japan, riding a Pierce; he carried off nearly all the honors at the Osaka championship meet in November, winning the ten-mile professional, and his photographed prizes include a dollbaby, pajamas, a hat, vase, calendar and mantle clocks.
- The New York Sun notes a photograph of an African pushing a bicycle up a hill and Missionary Lloyd's easy ride from Mengo to the capital of the western province at sixty miles a day, arguing that spreading good roads make Africa's 200,000,000 people a bicycle market.
- Part II—Chicago to Omaha of Stanley Bowmar's account of his transcontinental motorcycle trip: leaving the Whipple Cycle Co.'s store on Jackson Boulevard he rides through Geneva, Ashton, Dixon, Clinton, Cedar Rapids, Blairstown, Des Moines and Council Bluffs, revives dead batteries with water poured into the cells, laces a canvas cover over the back tire, and is soaked by Fourth of July thunderstorms and Iowa road-glue.
- Carbide partly slaked by exposure to air can be cleaned by shaking it in an old can with a perforated bottom, such as a discarded baking powder can, so the slaked dust falls out through the holes.
- The Touring Club de France has opened a competition for the most "affable, expert and suitable hotel proprietor," with a $500 first prize and a gold medal, judged by a committee of the club's secretaries and the Hotel Industry Syndicate.
- An old-time cyclist's scorn at motorcyclists boasting of riding a hundred miles on a self-propelled machine, and at three pages given to a century run of fifteen or twenty motorcyclists, when he and his fellows rode centuries on 50-pound solid-tired machines every Sunday.
- An English cyclist summoned for riding without a light argued that he and a friend rode with arms joined, the friend carrying a stable lantern, so the two machines formed one four-wheeled vehicle; the bench held both liable because the lamp was carried and not fixed, fining him 1s. with 4s. 6d. costs.
- A common kitchen chair turned upside down with the edge of the seat and the back on the floor makes a serviceable repair stand, the handle bars resting on the two upturned legs and the saddle against the back.
- At the National Athletic Club in Brooklyn Joe Fogler beat Walter Bardgett of Buffalo in a three-mile home trainer match in 5:50, the front roller flying into a hundred pieces on the last lap; Franklyn Fischer beat Owen J. Devine by half an inch in 1:20 and Walter Raleigh beat Arthur Wilcox in 4:00.
- Nearly 1,000 spectators saw the first inter-club home trainer meet since the earthquake, held December 10th, won by the New Century Wheelmen's George McGrath and Christopher Scheller over the Bay City team of Fred McLaughlin and Artie Dagget; McGrath took the individual time prize with two miles in 2:30 4/5.
- P. T. Powers, indisposed by journalistic "hammer throwers" and chronic rheumatism, has kept away from his office at 220 Broadway, and his stenographer says he does not feel justified in taking hold of the proposed Chicago six-day race and week of sprint racing in February.
- Internal Revenue Commissioner Yerkes rules that druggists who rectify or deal in distilled spirits, wines or malt liquors fall under the denatured alcohol regulations and cannot store it on the same premises; a department store with a fifth-floor liquor department and main-floor drug department counts as one premises, and inspectors will file tri-monthly diary reports.
- Noble O. Tarbell's Century Road Club of America report for the eleven months to November 30th leaves Herman H. Hintze of New York leading both centuries and mileage, with Harry Early of Bayonne, N. J., runner up in each; 602 centuries and 66,202 miles have been ridden since the first of the year.
- The Eastern District Turner Cycle Club of Brooklyn has elected Carl Wetzel president, Albert Fink vice-president, Herman Elsasser secretary, George Braun treasurer and John H. Miller captain, and will hold its annual banquet at the Bushwick and Gates avenue club rooms on February 21st.
- The Paris police have stopped "Dare Devil" Schreyer's dive at the Buffalo Track under threat of arrest, but he holds a 1907 contract for Germany, is booked for Pontypool and Liverpool, and has devised a new act riding on rollers fitted close to the roof above the tank.
- The man who carries a whisk broom in his pocket is always popular on the road, especially at the noonday stop, and a tidy machine and rider suggest clean sport and real riding rather than a series of little journeys between repairs.