The Bicycling World, Vol 54, No 19
Articles in this issue
- The Rubber Goods Mfg. Co. is likely to be merged into the United States Rubber Co., which already holds 90 per cent of its stock, with the stockholders deciding at their April meeting; the bicycle trade's interest is that Hartford Rubber Works, Morgan & Wright and the G & J Tire Co. are Rubber Goods units under president Charles H. Dale.
- Only six motorcycle exhibits appear on the official list for the Chicago Automobile Show: Consolidated Mfg. Co. (Yale-California), Hendee (Indian), Reading Standard (R-S), Fowler-Manson-Sherman (Manson), Aurora Automatic Machinery (Thor) and Harley Davidson (Davidson).
- The New Departure Mfg. Co. has bought the Liberty Bell Co. of Bristol, Conn., and will concentrate bell-making in the Liberty factory to free room for coaster brakes; E. D. Rockwell, formerly Liberty's general manager, takes charge of the New Departure bell department.
- F. F. Rick & Co., the Buffalo jobbers, have incorporated under New York law with $10,000 capital stock, Frederick F., Otto R. and Thomas A. Rick named as corporators.
- Trade notes: Rogers's interest in Rogers & Hunt of Coldwater, Mich., is bought by George Wicker; L. K. Edwards opens a new store in the Masonic block at Escanaba, Mich.; Charles Hill's store at Medina, N. Y., is destroyed by fire.
- The Commissioner of Patents, ruling in the Copeland-Townsend-Robinson coaster-brake interference, directs the Primary Examiner to enter and reject the Townsend and Copeland amendments and to fix a limit of appeal, bringing the Pope/New Departure versus Morrow fight in sight of an end.
- Illustrated new riding kit from the Gilbert Mfg. Co. of New Haven, Conn.: a waist-length rubber-cloth poncho with snug collar and snap-fastened yoke, a fleece-lined helmet that also protects the chest, and a laced chrome-leather tire sleeve with non-skid rivets.
- A New England bicycle firm selling skates as a winter side line tacked a "Cheap Skates" placard to its swinging sign, so that it read "Jones & Smith, Cheap Skates" until the town's laughter gave the joke away.
- British makers now issue several warranties for one machine; Rudge-Whitworth, Ltd., of Coventry announces a "ten year guarantee" on certain parts of its 1907 product while other parts are warranted for a year only.
- Boil platinum filings in strong nitric acid in a chemist's test tube: poor-quality metal dissolves and leaves a green tint, while pure platinum is unaffected by the heat.
- A London print reports that fourteen leading cycle-trade firms made an aggregate net profit of £328,446 in 1906, against £158,301 in the previous twelve months.
- Cycle and parts exports for 1906 totalled $1,404,546, up $84,050 on 1905; the United Kingdom ($271,474) displaces Japan ($209,691) as first customer and the Netherlands rise 143 per cent to $118,966, while Canada halves and France falls 73 per cent. Full detail table by country.
- The Troxel Mfg. Co. of Elyria, Ohio, adds a flexible motorcycle saddle its makers say never needs adjustment, together with grain-leather tool bags in two sizes, one for the saddle rear and a roll for the top bar.
- Conversion table for European measures: 1 millimetre = .03937 inch, 1 litre = 1.76 pints, 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds, 1 kilometre = five-eighths of a mile.
- The French firm Forges-de-Denain is said to be building motors fitted with pressed-steel pistons, claimed to give considerable added strength with an actual reduction in weight.
- A tale told round the New York automobile show credits a flat tire eight miles out of Evansville, Ind., with E. R. Thomas's career: his angry telegram to H. A. Lozier brought Lozier's "come and do it" reply, a Toronto managing directorship and finally the Auto-Bi factory at Buffalo.
- Editorial urging every Pennsylvania motorcyclist to see or write his senator and assemblyman behind F. A. M. State Representative S. D. Bashore, since the automobilists will give no help and Commissioner of Highways Hunter would charge motorcycles the same $3 a year and two cast-iron tags as motor cars.
- Editorial arguing that mounting patrolmen on bicycles multiplies either the frequency of rounds or the size of a beat, cites Larchmont's motor-bicycle police as proof, and urges dealers to put the case to local authorities.
- Full-page signed drawing, monogrammed "KAG," of a cyclist who has wheeled his machine to a snowbound mill pond and boat landing.
- Glen H. Curtiss, back from Ormond and stopping in New York en route to Hammondsport, calls the beach carnival practically a failure, claims an officially timed single-cylinder mile in 1:02 on January 23rd, and describes the terrific vibration of the eight-cylinder machine on its private 26 2/5-second mile; W. H. Wray, Jr., holds the mile at 44 2/5 seconds on a 14 h.p. Peugeot.
- Commissioner of Highways Hunter will not lower the motorcycle fee because it would complicate his office's work, and the Pennsylvania Automobile Federation dare not disagree with him, so Dr. S. D. Bashore of Palmyra, the new F. A. M. State Representative, appeals to riders to commit their legislators to an exempting amendment.
- C. H. Dale, president of the Rubber Goods Mfg. Co. and a Larchmont, N. Y., resident, bought three Indians and gave them to the town when the police fund fell short; there has not been a burglary since the motorcycle patrol began, and the machines also bring in speeding fines.
- Cartoon of a skater bowling along towed by a small motor-driven wheel trailing on a frame behind him.
- A correspondent writes that he rode the latter part of last season on the Salt Lake track under a nom de plume to keep his mother from knowing, but once he began bringing the prize money home she said nothing, so he will race under his own name in 1907.
- At the Paris winter track on Sunday the 13th, Darragon beat Nat Butler in both the 20 and 30 kilometre heats, Butler being lapped twice and then beaten by 220 yards, while Jacquelin defeated MacFarland over one and two kilometres.
- Judge Bray at Birmingham, England, threw out an injured cyclist's damages claim against a hen's owner because it was not proved the bird was in the habit of rushing at riders; backed by the Cyclists' Touring Club, the plaintiff is taking the case to a higher court.
- A. Chesby in the Scottish Cyclist recounts a snowy winter run to Hoadley with Jones and the insufferably precise Carlish, who logs every mile, refuses to slow without a hand signal, deprecates new machines and cheese alike, and is finally left wheeling a bottle-cut tire while the narrator withholds the repair kit in his pocket.
- Dr. Stroud's Yorkshire College experiments, illustrated from the British Motorcycle, show a rubber belt thrown clear of the small pulley on a layer of compressed air at speed, and calculate that at a mile a minute centrifugal action more than doubles the stress on a motorcycle belt.
- At the New York Motorcycle Club's annual beefsteak dinner on the 26th, held in an underground resort called the "Dungeon," Gerbereaux delivered a twenty-minute harangue about his F. A. M. suspension until former Captain Bendix rebuked him for spoiling the evening.
- A township committee ordinance at Lakewood, N. J., prohibits riding bicycles or motorcycles on the sidewalks, the justice of the peace to choose between a fine up to $100 and up to ninety days in the township lockup.
- J. C. Wright reached Los Angeles on January 21st, having left Springfield, Mo., on July 16th with F. W. Johnson and his brother C. L. Wright; Johnson turned back homesick at Santa Fe and C. L. Wright's bicycle was stolen at Phoenix, leaving J. C. to fight snow at Flagstaff alone.
- Boston's mid-winter flat-floor rink racing brings Hugh MacLean and James F. Moran together in two races tonight, with a whisper of a six-day race on the so-many-hours-a-day plan beginning February 18th.
- The Edgecombe Wheelmen of New York elected John Bellew president, Emil Koster vice-president, B. Glemba treasurer, H. Vanden Dries financial secretary and H. Kest captain for the 1907 term.
- The Prospect Wheelmen will hold a mile home-trainer race open to all amateurs alongside their February 21st dance at Turn Verein Hall, 670 East 158th street, New York; entries go to Thomas Owen at 811 East 144th street and a gold watch heads ten prizes.
- The week's list of cycle and motor patents, among them Edwin O. Pease's vehicle tire, George Horst's sprocket chain, Gustave E. Franquist's float-feed carburetter, the Pequegnats' motor-cycle drive and Israel C. Orswell's sparking plug for explosion engines.