The Bicycling World, Vol 64, No 8
Articles in this issue
- The New York Central Railroad will nearly double Grand Central Palace with a column-free twin building on Lexington avenue between 47th and 48th streets, giving 160,000 square feet, an eight-lap bicycle track and a 162-foot swimming tank by autumn 1912, so that the loss of Madison Square Garden need not end the shows or the six-day races; the Automobile Board of Trade holds a five-year lease.
- F. B. Marshall, the well-known racing man of Terre Haute, Ind., formerly with the J. E. Sayre Co., joins the Sutcliffe Co. of Louisville, Ky., which expects to dispose of not less than 200 machines in the coming season.
- The National Association of Cycle Jobbers finishes revising its list and recognises 156 concerns, 31 of them newly added and several weeded out, printed state by state from J. H. Martin Arms Co. of Little Rock to the Philip Gross Hardware Co. of Milwaukee.
- J. A. Handin succeeds E. T. Roberts as sales manager of the Aurora Automatic Machinery Co., makers of the Thor; the 1912 Thor will generally be finished in white, battery models selling at $175, with a new trussed front fork and new five-horsepower single ($250) and seven-horsepower twin ($300) models.
- The Fisk Rubber Co. has placed contracts for a two-story reinforced concrete branch building on its property at Van Ness avenue and Austin street, San Francisco, at a cost of $15,000.
- The building housing Little Joe Weisenfeld's sporting goods, bicycle and motorcycle establishment at Howard and Baltimore streets, Baltimore, Md., is to be altered and improved to meet increased business.
- The Canadian Port Huron Co. of Winnipeg secures the Western Canada selling rights for the M.-M. motorcycles built by the American Motor Co. of Brockton, Mass.
- The full text of the Seventh District Court of Appeals decision by Justices Grosscup, Baker and Carpenter, affirming Judge Kohlsaat and defeating the Pope Mfg. Co. in the 20-year fight over William E. Smith's bottom-bracket patent No. 392,937, on English prior art in Griffin's Year Book, the "Cyclist," "Bicycling News" and Sturmey's Handbook showing the Rover, Ranger and Raleigh brackets.
- B. A. Swenson of 298 Blackstone street, Providence, R. I., offers a priming cap for easier cold starting, screwed into the centre of the cylinder head and metric-threaded so that it interchanges with metric plugs, suited to any motor tapped for two plugs and especially to Indians.
- Fred I. Willis, ex-president of the F. A. M., leaves the presidency of the Indianapolis Auto Trade Association for the Kokomo Rubber Co. and is given a "retiring reception" at the Hoosier Motor Club, where he receives a night shirt and a Masonic emblem presented by C. A. Bookwalter.
- The G. H. Westing Co. of Indianapolis sends salesmen out on motorcycles to demonstrate to farmers and to people in country towns and hamlets, taking names and addresses for follow-up catalogs and letters and then returning to clinch the sale.
- Walter Goerke of Brooklyn, one of the sport's most popular racers and lately of F. A. Baker & Co., takes the Pierce and Indian agencies for Essex County, N. J., fitting up a 25 by 70 store at 321 Washington street, Newark, after a year out of action from a road-race accident.
- The Fisk Rubber Co. of Chicopee Falls, Mass., will open direct factory branches at Brooklyn, N. Y., Pittsburg, Pa., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Butte, Mont., raising its total to 34.
- H. F. Bidwell, former manager of the branch, and Kennedy Conklin incorporate at $10,000 to take over F. A. Baker & Co.'s uptown branch at 2142 Broadway, New York, keeping the Indian and Pierce lines and pushing delivery vans and commercial use of motorcycles.
- Hiram G. Baxter, Excelsior agent at 31 Washington street, Providence, R. I., brings out a bracket that fastens under the fork-stem headnut, or to a handlebar, to carry the pennant staffs popular with touring riders.
- The Bluff Bicycle Co. opens at 517 Bluff street, Waterloo, Ia., with Ellis Boggs as manager, carrying new and used bicycles, the local Indian motorcycle agency and a fully equipped repair shop.
- Fernand Mercier of New York, lately resigned from the staff of F. A. Baker & Co., opens a motorcycle repair shop at 530 Classon avenue, Brooklyn, doing repair work exclusively.
- The Hayes Rubber Co. of 57 Warren street, New York, financially backed by David Grinberg of Morris & Grinberg, goes into involuntary bankruptcy with $25,000 liabilities against $1,000 assets after failing to pay the rent; S. Lawrence Miller is appointed receiver.
- O. T. Peckham & Co., makers of bicycle grips, and the Victor Pump Co. of Grand Rapids, Mich., are having Spanish catalogs and literature prepared by the Latin-American Service Co. for a push into the southern republics.
- Frank S. Sessions, Worcester Polytechnic Institute '89 and a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, is appointed superintendent of the Standard-Welding Co. of Cleveland, with F. H. Meyers as assistant superintendent.
- A consular report notes that a dealer in a populous mining suburb of a large European city wants to import American bicycles and parts direct, none being sold in the district at present; enquirers are referred to the Bureau of Manufactures, File No. 7226.
- A friend sends in a photograph of M. G. Littlefield, Pope Manufacturing Co. salesman for Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas and Kentucky, caught at ease, as proof that so strenuous a worker is also a "hard player."
- D. S. Troxel of the Troxel Mfg. Co. is re-elected mayor of Elyria, carrying the town by double the vote of his nearest opponent.
- B. A. Swenson, the leading motorcycle dealer of Providence, R. I., buys a plot at the junction of Broad, Friendship and Blackstone streets for what is said to be the East's first building given over exclusively to motorcycle sales, storage and repair, to be occupied on 1 April 1912.
- C. L. Waters resigns from the Marvel Motorcycle Co. to become general manager of the Motorcycle Equipment Co. of Hammondsport, N. Y., whose sales rose 42 per cent in 1911; H. E. Longwell, formerly of the Curtiss Motorcycle Co., takes charge of the Marvel.
- The Cuyahoga Motorcycle Co. of Cleveland is incorporated at $10,000 with directors George E. Hagenbach, H. A. Bluth, William S. Stuber, W. J. O'Neil and M. M. Sneyd.
- Leader tracing motorcycle starting from pedalling the machine and the flying leap into the saddle, through the rear stand and the free engine clutch, to the 1912 foot starter, whose real value is that it ends the "pedaling the air" spectacle that convinces the public machines are unreliable.
- Leader welcoming the Toronto Motorcycle Club's affiliation after the Buffalo convention created a Canadian F. A. M. district; president G. H. Hamilton has named J. Leo Sauer of the Legal Action Committee to explain the move at a joint meeting of Canadian clubs, and Winnipeg is expected to follow.
- Fixture calendar for November to March: the Century Road Club Association Eastern Division ten-mile handicap at Floral Park on 12 November, the Olympia show in London 20–25 November, the nineteenth international six-day race at Madison Square Garden 11–16 December, the twelfth New York automobile show 6–20 January and the Denver show 4–11 March.
- J. U. Constant of Brooklyn closes the New York district season at Guttenberg, N. J., on 7 November with a mile in 55 3/5 seconds, taking two-fifths of a second off Walter Goerke's track record, and wins both trade events from M. Costello; Albert Graves crashes on "Death Turn," Ferd Mercier and J. J. Cox ride a substitute five-mile match, and Ralph DePalma gives a three-mile exhibition in a 90-horsepower Mercedes.
- At the Lancaster (Pa.) fair grounds on 4 November J. U. Constant of Brooklyn takes the five-mile open, the twenty-minute race and the mile time trial on an Indian; Charles Kautz runs into the fence in the novice but is not badly hurt, and W. R. "Happy Days" Pitman referees.
- Erwin G. Baker smashes all Indiana "state records" from one to 55 miles on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, covering the 55 miles in 48:20 and a separate mile in 48 2/5 seconds, but two stops end his sanctioned attempt on the one-to-200-mile amateur records; Harry Graff referees and local promoters plan a 200-mile race in the spring.
- "Farmer Joe" Wolters wins both the five- and ten-mile money races on an Excelsior at Sacramento, Cal., on 29 October and sets a new local mile record, with Balke close second; W. G. Collins somersaults and breaks a bone in a foot, and Evelyn Morris beats Hannah McCarthy in a three-mile ladies' race.
- Fay Haskins on an Excelsior wins four starts and makes the day's fastest time of 1:17 3/5 at the Danville (Ill.) Motorcycle Club's closed meet at Ellsworth Park on 30 October; T. C. Alexander takes the remaining event, the five-mile open.
- At Pottstown, Pa.'s first motorcycle meet on 28 October, promoted by local dealer George Freshley, J. U. Constant wins the half-hour grind with 28 1/4 miles and both ten-mile trade events and sets a mile track record of 56 1/2 seconds; Harry Bond of Philadelphia takes the novice and private owners' races on a Marvel.
- D. L. Tullis of Kenton, Ohio, wins four starts on a Thor at the joint Piqua and Troy Motorcycle Clubs' meet at the Troy fair grounds on 1 November, but George H. Forrer of Springfield goes into a turn head down, hits the fence, crushes his skull and dies a few hours later.
- The Elmira (N. Y.) Motorcycle Club offers a Fisk gripfast tire to the member securing the most applications, over ten, by the first of the year; P. B. Rutan gave the club a dinner after the meeting of 2 November.
- A. E. Manchester on a Merkel is the only rider unpenalised over 507 miles of the Rhode Island Motorcycle Club's three reliability runs, with J. C. Loftes, A. Fazzi and W. E. Johnston tied for second on 25 points lost; W. L. Hillman breaks his neck but lives, Winslow forfeits his own perfect score to carry him to hospital, and Fazzi climbs Dolly Cole hill in 42 seconds.
- Full-width cartoon in support of the paper's anti-cut-out campaign, showing the open-muffler rider tormented in the flames by imps banging exhaust cans in his ears.
- H. G. Bran of Madison, Wis., rides a four-horsepower Thor with free engine clutch through snow, Chicago and Indianapolis on his way to Memphis and a job as an automobile and motorcycle repair man, reporting no engine or tire trouble in 300 miles.
- H. H. Huntsbery tours from Cleveland to Louisville by way of Pittsburg, Wheeling, Columbus, the Merkel factory and Cincinnati, settles there, and issues challenges to local racing men on his stock Merkel.
- The Terre Haute (Ind.) M. C. re-elects H. E. Baldwin president, C. O. Powell vice-president, F. A. Houff secretary and E. Waggoner treasurer.
- Technical article on lubricants, explaining viscosity measured by the Saybolt viscosimeter at 100 degrees, gravity by hydrometer on the Baume scale, the flash, fire and cold tests, distilled versus reduced oils, and remedies for carbonization such as a teaspoonful of kerosene in each cylinder once a week.
- Howard A. French arranges five motorcycle races of one to five miles, with bicycle events between, at Electric Park, Baltimore, on Thanksgiving Day, 30 November, with the Maryland M. C. and the Crescent B. C. entering their best riders on the half-mile track.
- Five of the Hendee Mfg. Co.'s sales staff — P. B. Whitney, F. D. Shomo, F. L. Hunt, A. H. Crocker and Herbert Kipp — with Goodyear's D. E. Dunn ride three 1911 seven-horsepower Indians with Milford wicker side cars from Springfield to the Guttenberg races, drawing crowds on Broadway after rain, burned gloves and a New Jersey policeman who stopped them for having no number plates.
- At Woodstock, Ont.'s first motorcycle races on Canadian Thanksgiving Day, 30 October, Miss "Dolly" Golden of Syracuse beats Miss Mack of Toronto by two lengths in 5:59, both on Motosacoches; the five-mile open is abandoned when Billings of Detroit is crowded into the fence and breaks a leg.
- Charles Orr, a founder of the Toronto (Ont.) Motorcycle Club, is suspended for a year for racing his motorcycle against a motor car at an unsanctioned automobile meet on 30 October after the club had forbidden its members to take part.
- Report of the Buffalo six-day begun on 6 November, in which the announced "box office" score runs 16 miles ahead of the actual riding; Fogler-Root, Clark-Hill and Bedell-Bedell trade the lead, Collins and Wells are denied a lap gain when the referee rings the bell after Fogler's puncture, and Bedell-Bedell and Pye-Drobach top Wednesday's score on 532 miles.
- Department of short news notes: W. J. Teubner leaves the Merkel racing team for Indian, Tacoma prepares a motor vehicle ordinance, the Central Union Telephone Co. puts three Excelsiors on trouble-shooting work at Terre Haute, the Racycle B. C. of Baltimore holds its chestnut run, and the Syracuse Motorcycle Club makes its last run of the season to Oneida Lake.
- Answering "A Canadian Reader" of Toronto, the paper traces Jake DeRosier from his birth in Quebec in 1879 and bicycle road racing around Taunton in 1897, through pacing Elkes, Nelson, Walthour and Moran on DeDion, Hedstrom and Orient machines, to the world professional championship at Brooklands in July 1911 and his change from Indian to Excelsior.
- Chas. E. Minnemeyer of Pittsburg, Pa., backs Mr. Farwell's letter calling for lower gears, reporting that no dealer would offer him less than an 81-inch gear for a boy's bicycle while he himself rides 66 inches on the road.
- Henry J. M. L. Elskamp and John Hanenberg leave Detroit on an intended three-year world tour awheel and reach Jackson, Mich., on 31 October over near-impassable mud; Elskamp, a Netherlands-born draughtsman and trained singer, plans to earn his way singing in theatres and selling post-card photographs, with Bieter Koolwyk to join them at Grand Rapids.
- Two bicycle races at the Pottstown Motor Club's meet of 28 October go to Frank Hart of Reading (one mile, 3:02) and Paul Hart of Reading (two miles, 6:22), ahead of Pottstown men Walter Reifsnyder, John Ludwick and Daniel Keene.
- Marshall Thompson wins the five-mile singles on an Excelsior at the White Plains, N. Y., meet on 7 November, then skids on a turn in the twins event, is tossed over the fence and taken to hospital with a mangled right leg; Ackerman on an Indian wins the twins.
- Nineteen events before 4,500 spectators open the season on the new indoor track in the 74th Regiment armory at Buffalo on 4 November: Frank L. Kramer beats A. J. Clark in both heats of their match, Elmer Collins beats Menus Bedell in two straight paced five-mile heats, Clark wins the five-mile professional open and Walter DeMara the mile handicap.
- Captain Huber's report on the Crescent B. C. of Baltimore run-attendance contest for 1911 leaves four men tied: A. Leimbach and Thoms on a perfect 170 points and W. Leimbach and Doc Sanborn on 165, with the tie likely to run into next year; the last moonlight run of the season went to Pikesville on 2 November.
- Against the claim that cycling as a pastime is dead, the paper lists regular royal and titled riders including King George, Princess Victoria, the Czar and Czarina of Russia, ex-King Manuel of Portugal, the Sultan of Morocco, the Duke and Duchess of Portland and the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot.
- More affiliated clubs adopt the anti-cut-out resolutions suggested by the paper, the Oakland (Cal.) Motorcycle Club voting a 50-cent fine for a first offence and expulsion for a second, while J. Leo Sauer of 51 Chambers street, New York, drafts bills for the state legislatures.
- Dawson wins all three events — a mile scratch and three- and five-mile handicaps — for 15 points in the first meet of the Century Road Club of America's championship series at the Guttenberg track on 5 November, with Markowitz second in each on nine points and 11 men in each field.