The Bicycling World, Vol 8, No 21
Articles in this issue
- Editorial criticising the League's publisher Oliver and Jenkins for selling the L.A.W. membership mailing list for profit and drawing on the League treasury, arguing that the League's assets should not be exploited for the publisher's commercial benefit.
- Detailed description of Nelson Merrill's newly patented tri-crank tricycle, whose three cranks set 120 degrees apart ensure that the rider's leg weight continuously drives the machine at every point in the stroke, eliminating the dead-centre stall of conventional two-crank bicycles; includes analysis of the physics of walking and its application to rotary propulsion.
- Three items round out the correspondence column: an unsigned note ('N.H.') on the Massachusetts division's dispute with the late L.A.W. secretary, whose account books were found about fifteen per cent in error; F. W. Blacker of Worcester denying that his earlier letter attacked the League and defending Edwin W. Adams of New York against Edward A. Caner's published criticism; and a member protesting an advertisement offering the L.A.W. membership list for sale at $3.50, accusing an ex-corresponding secretary of profiteering to buy support for his reinstatement in the Citizens' Club.
- Report on the Spirit of the Times refusing to accept the New Haven bicycle track records, citing the eight-week gap between the racing and the track remeasurement, the variable inner grass margin, and insufficient independent verification of times.
- Brief notes on a recent bicycle polo match; a runaway-horse incident caused by a bicycle; and a report of the Champion City Club of Springfield MA holding its annual minstrel entertainment and supper at the Lagonda House, with songs including 'Five and Forty Blackbirds.'
- Humorous poem reprinted from the Bicycling Times, by Agonistes, about a college boy who thrusts his hoop-stick into a cyclist's wheel in Marlborough, provoking a comical exchange of tall tales; followed by miscellany spanning several pages — a visit from A. T. Lane of Montreal, new portraits (Capt. W. B. Everett, H. S. Tibbs) for the editor's album, racing plans for James J. Gilligan of the Massachusetts Bicycle Club, a Columbia bicycle gift for Prof. Skinner, John S. Webber Jr.'s forthcoming Gloucester road book, a Woodside libel suit over a slanderous letter, a reader's ('the Owl') complaint about S. Conant Foster's Wheelman illustration, the Washington 'Cycle Club's fund-raising for the May L.A.W. meet, the League's tentative Washington racing programme (25-, 10-, 3- and 1-mile events and a tricycle mile), and Dan O'Leary's proposed six-day horse-versus-bicycle wager against Louise Armaindo.
- Report of the Gamwell brothers of Providence RI, two American C.T.C. members on a European bicycle tour, who caused great sensation riding through the Azores, Madeira, Portugal, and Spain, being the first cyclists the island and rural populations had ever seen.
- First-person account of a summer bicycle outing near Stamford, Conn., passing Capt. Stevens's place at Noroton Point and admiring the 'Fair Lawn' estate on Noroton Hill, with a description of a crab-catching local character encountered en route, leading into a note that the Stamford Wheel Club will be well represented at the coming League meet.
- Club news from the Springfield Bicycle Club (George Nash's fancy riding exhibition and plans for a fall tournament at Hampden Park), the Connecticut Bicycle Club of Hartford (a $100 award from the Springfield club and new 'Conn.' insignia), Youngstown Ohio's new officers, the Tremont Bicycle Club's annual dinner, the Citizens' Club's refusal of Fred Jenkins's resignation, a new club at South Framingham, the Lafayette Wheelmen of Baltimore's planned tour to Boston, the Kings County Wheelmen's (Brooklyn) annual elections, and the newly formed Druid Wheelmen of Baltimore.
- Results from the Recreation Grounds races in San Francisco, Cal., 2 March: W. Bennett beat T. Eck over five miles (16m 50s); Mlle. L. Armaindo covered two miles in 7m 2⅓s; and J. S. Prince beat H. W. Higham by a length over twenty miles (1h 10m 1⅓s); also a twenty-mile race at Portland, Ore., won by Merrill over Warren despite Warren's three-minute head start.
- Cyclists' Touring Club notices: annual dues and how to obtain application blanks from U.S. chief consul Frank W. Weston of Savin Hill, Boston; and details of the American division's annual gathering at Poughkeepsie, N.Y., on 21-22 May, comprising a business meeting and dinner followed by a twenty-mile run to points of interest in the Poughkeepsie suburbs.