The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 21, No 35
Articles in this issue
- A New Zealand correspondent reported that despite a current glut of imported American and English bicycles, the growing sport-loving Australasian population was expected to sustain a steady market, while cemeted single-tube tires remained unpopular because riders could not repair them without English instructions.
- A New Zealand inventor claimed to have developed a chemical treatment that could quadruple the durability of pneumatic tire rubber without removing the tires from the rims, and the process was reported to be attracting serious attention from the local trade.
- Cleveland cycle material makers were receiving early orders for 1899 parts at levels never seen so early in the year, with manufacturers placing specifications for three-crown frames, one-piece forks, and taper-gauge tubing before the current season had even ended.
- Austria-Hungary announced the opening of a commercial export academy in Vienna to train young Austrians to represent their country's business abroad with full command of foreign languages, offered as a model for how American firms might better prepare export representatives.
- Shelby Steel Tube Co. and Cleveland suppliers reported surging advance orders for taper-gauge frame tubing for 1899 models, as manufacturers sought to reduce weight without sacrificing stiffness in an increasingly competitive market.
- A successful injunction was obtained against a manufacturer producing pearl handlebar grips alleged to infringe an existing design patent, adding to the season's roster of patent enforcement actions across bicycle components.
- Frank Schoenfeld was appointed receiver for the Dodson Mfg. Co. (also trading as the Northern Wheel Works) after the company's books were found destroyed or secreted and all stock had been seized by the Royal Trust Co.; many small creditors who had sent money for undelivered goods were advised to contact the receiver for any claims arising after the May 17 appointment date.
- Several serious fork failures leaving Buffalo cyclists with painful and in one case fatal injuries prompted local editors to call for publishing manufacturers' names in accident reports; one writer attributed the epidemic of breaks to the cheapening of bicycles and demanded state inspection, while another editor cautioned that publicity would work immense injury to makers not responsible for wholesale price competition.
- Western Wheel Works brought mandamus proceedings to test who bore responsibility for the new one-cent war revenue stamp required on express bills of lading, and the Assistant Attorney General ruled that the law placed the duty squarely on the carrier—not the shipper—and that carriers refusing shipment until shippers paid the stamp faced statutory penalties.
- The editorial argued that excessive and often groundless patent suits were doing serious harm to the trade by imposing legal costs on legitimate manufacturers and discouraging the investment in improved designs that the industry needed.
- The editorial endorsed the growing movement for a cycle trade convention in August or September, arguing that manufacturers had finally recognized their common interests over competition; a proposed agenda covered dealer price protection, retail trade scope, options policy, the motocycle question, import duties, the metric system, export shipping rates, bicycle testing standards, and labor relations.
- The Royal Agricultural Society's June 1898 Manchester freight motor vehicle trial drew five entries across one-ton and three-ton categories; the Daimler covered van—with two vertical cylinders, four-speed bevel-gear drive, and three braking systems—proved superior to the steam Leyland and Thornycroft lorries, while the Roots and Venables and Saunderson entries failed to compete at all.
- London electrical engineer L. Epstein proposed a self-charging motocycle combining storage batteries driving an electric motor with a supplementary oil engine used in reverse as a dynamo to recharge the accumulators while stationary, promising 60-mile range at under 3,360 pounds total weight including four passengers.
- Most bicycle manufacturers case-hardened parts by dumping them directly from the high-temperature carbon-baking oven into the quench tank, producing coarse-grained steel because the metal was far too hot when quenched; the article argued that allowing the box to cool first, then reheating to the proper lower hardening temperature, yielded a markedly finer and more uniform case—a distinction illustrated with micrograph comparisons of pedal pins hardened each way.
- This second installment on wood rim manufacturing explained the structural divergence between laminated and single-piece rims since their introduction, and demonstrated that bending under compression rather than tension increased rim strength and durability by approximately one half—making bending method as important as wood species selection for the final quality of the finished rim.
- The article catalogued the full range of work a repair shop could perform on steering head bearings—repairing crown cones, head cups, adjusting cones, lock nuts, worn threads, and binding clamps—and demonstrated silver-soldering techniques for broken bronze cups along with the value of an emery wheel for grinding misfit cones, arguing that modest investment in shop equipment paid for itself many times over.
- Drawing on Professor Lewes's recent London lecture, the article explained why calcium carbide reacts with water to reach temperatures of 1,400–1,480°F within 15–20 minutes, causing 'after generation'—continued gas production even after water is shut off because the hot slaked lime residue releases moisture back to adjacent carbide; this made it impossible to extinguish acetylene bicycle lamps promptly, and the resulting tarry deposits in burners and pipes were identified as the central practical obstacle facing lamp designers.
- The ongoing shift by parts suppliers toward cash-only terms was examined, with analysis of how the tightening of credit was accelerating the exit of undercapitalized small builders while strengthening the position of established manufacturers.
- A Milwaukee company had begun sampling a new bicycle axle nut formed by bending a flat steel bar into a ring with a lapped split on one side, then pressing it into hexagonal form and threading it slightly smaller than its bolt so that it applied constant spring tension preventing loosening under road vibration; the nut could only be moved with a wrench, making it a direct remedy for the chronic problem of front and rear axle nuts working loose.
- Reviewing the Liverpool heavy lorry trials, the article argued that all four competing vehicles—Thornycroft, Lifu, Leyland, and Roots and Venables—had failed not from poor engineering talent but from the absence of standardized design rules; since no established specification existed for road-vehicle transmission, axle loading, or structural reinforcement, the trial's value lay in identifying four distinct failure modes rather than in producing a successful vehicle.
- Two anecdotes were recounted at a gathering of traveling salesmen: an old-timer described inserting a lead pencil into the head tube of a bicycle in the early 1890s to simulate an internal reinforcement for skeptical dealers, and a second story described how precise knowledge of commercial law enabled a salesman to compel delivery of goods that a dishonest buyer was attempting to refuse.
- The section covered new 1899 bicycle components from several suppliers, including Worcester Ferrule and Mfg. Co.'s flush-joint frame fittings for 28- and 30-inch wheel models, the International Rubber Tire Co.'s sponge-tread Anti-Puncture tire, C. L. Henderson's ratcheting monkey wrench, Wire Goods Co.'s rolled-thread axles and toe clips, Billings and Spencer's cam-locking wrench, and Crown Electrical Mfg. Co.'s new bushed twin roller chain featuring internal bushings and a detachable link design.
- Tom Linton's paced defeat of Jimmy Michael at Manhattan Beach on July 16—covering 20 miles in 35:18 inside world record pace—led the racing news, though Michael's supporters again attributed the loss to a puncture; the column also previewed the national circuit championship standings battle between Gardiner, Cooper, Taylor, and Bald, noting that Major Taylor had been consistently performing at the highest level.
- Racing analysis argued that Arthur Gardiner was losing competitive edge in the national championship race while Tommy Cooper was riding with renewed consistency; Major Taylor was characterized as the equal of any current professional, and Eddie Bald was criticized for reckless tactics likely to cost him a better final standing.
- The eighth annual 100-mile run of the Illinois Century Road Club over the Elgin-Geneva course on July 19 drew 226 starters—nearly three times the previous year's 82—but heavy road dust caused widespread difficulties throughout the event; Nelson won the featured contest from Laitner.
- At the Castle Wheelmen's National Circuit meet at Tioga track on July 16, Major Taylor shut out Arthur Gardiner in the trial heat and then rode away from Eddie Bald in the final of the mile national championship before more than 6,000 spectators; the performance was seen as decisive evidence that Taylor was the equal of any professional currently on the circuit.
- Detailed reporting from New York on July 18 described Tom Linton's 20-mile paced victory over Jimmy Michael at Manhattan Beach, in which Michael punctured at a critical moment but Linton's intermediate times showed he had been riding well inside world record pace throughout; a return match was promptly arranged for the following Saturday.