The Bicycling World, Vol 54, No 24
Articles in this issue
- The Manhattan Storage Co. sold a Detroit dealer a "Buffalo Special" tire misrepresented in writing as rebranded Defender Special stock; the Kokomo Rubber Co. replies that it has not made a Buffalo Special for more than two years and that no specially branded tire was ever built of Defender material.
- The Pope Mfg. Co. has engaged H. B. Whitney, a motor engineer formerly of the Electric Vehicle Co. and designer of a two-cylinder motorcycle, to develop a Pope power driven bicycle, which will not reach the market until the fall.
- The Cycle Manufacturers Association and the Cycle Parts and Accessories Association will meet at Buffalo on Wednesday 13th inst. as scheduled, with the joint cycle show committee's report on the card.
- John S. Leng's Son & Co., the old New York jobbing firm, was converted into a $100,000 corporation under New York law, the incorporators named being G. E. Relyea, J. H. Richards, R. H. Hance, G. Hees and A. G. Cross.
- Stockholders of the Diamond Rubber Company meet March 12th to pass on raising the capital stock from $3,500,000 to $4,000,000.
- Only two motorcycles, the Yale-California and the Crouch, appear in the official exhibit list of the New England Automobile Show opening in Boston.
- Fred C. Gilbert of the Pope Mfg. Co. reports juvenile sales since August 17 running two-thirds of the whole preceding year, and W. H. Burgess of A. G. Spalding & Bros. puts juveniles at nearly a third of his department's business; Burgess also argues for Jiffy or Jifoid repairs over plugging punctured tires.
- January 1907 cycle and parts exports fell some $75,000 against 1906, the Netherlands slumping $41,127, Germany $27,660 and Japan $12,971, while the United Kingdom gained $31,764 and Cuba $2,264; the seven-month total runs about $40,000 behind a year ago.
- The British Cycle Trade Benevolent Fund, founded about a year ago, now holds interest bearing securities worth $15,000 to aid cycle trade men suffering accident or loss of employment and the widows and orphans of subscribers.
- The Liberty Bell Co. of Bristol, Conn., having sold its factory property to the New Departure Mfg. Co., went into a trustee's hands on January 28 and has offered creditors 80 per cent. on liabilities of about $40,000.
- The Richmond (Ind.) Bicycle Dealers Association elected W. M. Waking president, B. W. Thornton vice-president, Elmer S. Smith secretary, W. T. Bradway assistant secretary and W. H. Dunning treasurer for the 1907 term.
- H. D. Benner of the Goodyear staff lectured on and demonstrated the mechanically fastened Goodyear motorcycle tire at the New York Motorcycle Club's "Saturday Evening talk" on the 2d inst.
- Trade changes of the week: at Rochester, N. Y., Forest & Malone open as a new firm at 10 Monroe avenue.
- A. J. Musselman of Chicago, representing the Pope Manufacturing Co., has developed an automatic coaster brake of only six essentials with no side arm, claimed to be at least fifteen ounces lighter than rivals at under 25 ounces and no longer than a plain barrel hub.
- A new chapter to Part VII of the Municipal Explosives Commission's regulations, secured through conferences with the Federation of American Motorcyclists, lets Greater New York motorcycle shops keep two gallons of gasolene under licence, $10 if kept for sale and $2 if merely for use.
- Four bicycle stores out of every five carry no children's wheels, letting department, dry goods and toy shops take a steady trade that peaks at holidays and birthdays and breeds future buyers of adult machines.
- Dr. Oerum of the Finsen Institute at Copenhagen finds darkness reduces circulating blood by upwards of 3 per cent. while light restores it, which the paper takes as an argument for the bicycle as exerciser, aerater and sun-bathing machine.
- A motorcyclist who valued his old machine at $135 and spurned a dealer's $125 offer dallied all summer, finally taking $115, and so deprived himself of the use of any mount for an entire season.
- Clean oil needs a clean passage to the bearings, and clean gasolene free from water must pass a dust-clean carburetter, inlet-valve, combustion chamber, plug, contact-breaker case, piston and cylinder to a clean muffler.
- Hugo Medberg, a Swedish marine engineer, has invented "Petrolit," produced from ordinary wood tar and said to sell at about six cents a gallon, as efficacious as gasolene for motors and with the advantage of being odorless.
- Setting a ball bearing turns on a fraction of a turn of the adjusting cone, and because a bicycle has so few adjustments each matters the more; yet many riders never learn a good setting from a poor one or a tight nut from a loose.
- A recent British motor bicycle boasts both magneto ignition and a surface carburetter, suggesting the maker is stealing a lap on his contemporaries amid signs of a recrudescence of the surface type of vaporizer.
- Herman Hintze of New York took both century and mileage medals of the Century Road Club of America with 139 centuries and 20,292 miles in ten months, riding a Reading Standard geared to 84 inches over the Long Island course and turning 29 centuries in September alone.
- Otto C. Brandes, turned professional the week before by the National Cycling Association, took the loser's $25 share of a purse in an unlimited pursuit against roller skater "Willie" Blackburn at the Lenox roller rink, 116th street and Lenox avenue.
- Joe Fogler of Brooklyn, winner of the last six day race, and Walter Bardgett of Buffalo will sail on the Kaiser Wilhelm II on Tuesday 12th inst. to join the colony of American cracks in Europe, their ultimate destination Paris.
- Iver Lawson has signed to ride at Salt Lake City for the entire season, and with Kramer secured for the same track the racing there looks to be of the gilt edge variety.
- Lester Belmont traces carburetter trouble to the float, whose chattering and the vehicle's vibration keep the petrol from staying level below the spraying jet; he notes patented remedies using an air leak dashpot and light spiral spring, one of which raised mileage per gallon by 20 per cent.
- Oscar Schwab won two races in one meet at the Velodrome d'Hiver, Paris, taking the 550-metre international handicap from Benyon and the 10-kilometre lap event from Heller in 13:27, while Louis Darragon beat Guignard twice and John Bedell was given the consolation on Comes's foul.
- Floyd McFarland, still in France despite reports he had sailed, made his European paced debut at the Velodrome d'Hiver on 24th ult., beating Antoine Dussot by three and three-quarter laps and Henri Contenet by eleven in the 50-kilometre race, time 40:26 1/5.
- The St. Louis Cycling Club's annual meeting on March 4 re-elected William M. Butler president and chose H. Clay Ashlock vice-president, Charles Lee Barr secretary-treasurer and Aug. J. Schmidt captain, defeating retiring officers George Lang, Jr., and A. G. Harding at their own urging.
- Motorcycles were specifically exempted from the Federal automobile law's proposed $5 fee and Federal tag, and F.A.M. men are pressing state relief — Dr. S. D. Bashore in Pennsylvania, Dr. G. B. Gibson in Massachusetts, Vice-President Hall in Illinois and J. E. Bates in Washington.
- New York "shamateurs" turned professional by the National Cycling Association protest their innocence: Carl Ericson offers $25 to any charity for proof he took cash, and Victor Lind, Louis J. Weintz, A. E. Rhodes and Franklyn Fisher variously deny, appeal or allege discrimination over the Dyer Handicap at Valley Stream.
- Besides keeping the wick and burner trimmed and clean, the ventilators in the top or chimney must be cleared of soot and dust, charred thread and gummy oil kept off the burner and star wheels, and the regulator stem, hinges and door latch oiled.
- Run the motor until the offending member reaches working temperature, pour a few drops of kerosene where the thread begins, let it stand, then strike a long-handled wrench sharply with a hammer; a blow-torch serves if the motor cannot be run.
- "Jock" in the Scottish Cyclist urges every cycling club to appoint a touring secretary and organise tours of a week or fortnight rather than mere week-end spins, announcing dates early in the fixtures list and keeping clear of extravagance that prices out poorer members.
- The Capitol City Cycling Club of Springfield, Ill., incorporated in 1887, held its twentieth annual election, choosing William E. Griswold president, George Van Loon first vice-president, Dr. Otis Siefert second vice-president and Robert Orriney recording secretary.
- A horse ridden by Miss Maria Morse and a motorcycle ridden by Arthur Fish collided on South Los Robles avenue, Pasadena; neither rider nor animal was seriously hurt and each participant was willing to take the blame.
- Paul Bourillou, a former world's champion racing cyclist, has gone into grand opera and is singing the leading tenor role in Jongleur de Notre-Dame at the Theatre Royal de Grand at Roubaix.
- Axel Johnson expects to leave New York on the 19th inst. on a 3,000 mile tour through the South, "working his passage" as he goes and undeterred by mud or snow.
- The Carbondale Cycle Club of Pennsylvania voted to disband, appointing Daniel Scurry, A. E. Watres, Robert McMillan, Isaac Singer, Henry Sharlock and Jacob Fuchs to wind up its business by the last of March when the lease on its building expires.
- The Detroit Wheelmen have received permission to hold their Belle Isle 25-mile road race again on May 30th, and there is talk, not yet beyond the oral stage, of a motorcycle road race in connection with it.