The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 24, No 125
Articles in this issue
- The Liberty Bell Co. applied for a temporary injunction against the New Departure Bell Co. for allegedly copying its patented push-button continuous-ringing bicycle bell, a case complicated by the fact that the treasurers of the two rival companies were brothers who had previously been in business together.
- An unexpectedly strong demand for coaster-brake-equipped bicycles in Buffalo left most local dealers unable to fulfill orders, with nearly two-thirds of immediate sales and future orders being for this equipment, while a price war among dealers played out in large newspaper advertisements.
- A.B.C. attorney Redding announced he would begin taking witness testimony in the Eagle Bicycle Co. bottom bracket suit, expecting to complete the plaintiff's case within a few days, while the defense would then conduct its cross-examination and present its own witnesses.
- Faced with survey evidence that roughly 60 percent of dealers held anti-trust sentiments and with public hostility to the trust name, the American Bicycle Company quietly removed the A.B.C. name from its advertisements, having previously pushed it prominently to impress financial markets.
- A Cycle Age correspondent's canvass of Washington, D.C. bicycle dealers found business booming with the arrival of fair April weather, dealers crediting cordiality toward customers for repeat trade, and one house running weekly Saturday "bargain sale" advertisements on sundries to draw traffic; also notes the J. Stevens Arms & Tool Co.'s purchase of the Overman Wheel Co. plant and Victor bicycle rights.
- The French Bicycle and Automobile Board of Trade's president Darracq and vice-president Lelong petitioned French customs officials to reject reduced reciprocity tariffs on American bicycles, citing U.S. output of 950,000 machines a year, cheap American parts such as the Bridgeport Gun Implement Co.'s pedals, and the American Bicycle Company's 500,000-bicycle output, and urged adoption of the stiffer 1897 Descubes-Paulmier duty schedule instead.
- Dispatches from Newark, Jersey City, Elizabeth and Orange, N.J. describe an early-season bicycle boom, with Vailsburg track manager Voigt and racers Kirk Brown and Tom Cooper reporting crowded roads, and Newark dealers noting the chainless bevel-gear model selling mainly to wealthier "exclusive" city buyers rather than smaller-town riders.
- An editorial crediting Mr. Fulton of the Eclipse Bicycle Co. with pioneering the commercial coaster brake, and reporting that the Canfield Brake Co. (owner of R.H. Canfield's Tiefel patent no. 644,648) has accused Eclipse of infringement while Eclipse itself prepares to sue several rival makers over patents dating to 1896, warning of extensive coaster-brake litigation ahead.
- An editorial arguing that factory owners should install prize systems rewarding mechanics for shop-improvement suggestions, contending this channels workers' competitive instincts productively, gives them rightful credit for their ideas instead of foremen taking it, and eases friction between labor and capital.
- The fifth installment of the Cycle Age's nationwide dealer survey tallies how many respondents handle independent-only, trust-only or mixed bicycle lines, followed by dozens of short dealer quotes from towns across Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Indiana, Kansas, Georgia, Massachusetts and Wisconsin on whether they favor trust-made or independent machines; marked "to be concluded next week."
- A roundup of dealer news including a burglary at E. S. Pillow's shop in New Britain, Conn.; W. H. Coger opening a store in Port Clinton, O.; the death of Utica, N.Y. dealer George Seniff; N. Tip Slee selling his Baltimore store to the American Bicycle Co.; Fred Sanders buying out Olds & Co. in Ottawa, Ill.; W. F. "Jap" Clemens taking over the Fowler branch store in Indianapolis; and anti-trust dealer E. C. Sterne of the National Cycle Co. of Indianapolis.
- Short trade notices including A. G. Spalding's return from Europe, the dismantling of the former Stover plant in Freeport, Ill. after its sale to the American Bicycle Co., Morgan & Wright's suit against a Maxim Cycle Co. partner in Nashville, the Canada Cycle & Motor Co.'s new Winnipeg store, and bankruptcy filings by the Miller Cycle Co. of Hagerstown, Md. and Lyman E. Crandall of New York.
- An essayistic column musing on why bicycle frame-building isn't held to the machine-shop precision of a Starrett protractor, followed by notice of a patent granted to A. B. Keyes of Princeton, Mass. for a wood-rim bending machine designed to prevent fiber rupture during bending.
- The fifth installment of the Cycle Age's technical series on coaster brakes concludes its survey of English devices, describing Brampton Bros.' new Desideratum clutch, the Marriott free-wheel clutch, Player's combined brake-and-free-wheel system, the Trueman back-pedaling brake, Perry's automatic band brake, and a Birmingham Small Arms Co. rim brake.
- A practical-tips column featuring repairer S. E. Frew of Port Clinton, O. describing tools for seating rim washers and turning down worn cone bearings, plus shop notes on frame-pinning rivets, screw-machine cutting tools, a tap guide, and an inside/outside measuring gauge.
- Drawing on a Machinery magazine contributor, this article explains practical methods for accurate lathe boring, covering starting-hole drilling, steadying the drill, truing and finishing holes, and building solid and traversing-head boring bars.
- The Cycle Age's regular patent-office column is headlined by F. A. Seiberling of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'s napped double-tube tire patent, aimed at evading the Tillinghast patent, plus J. C. Hanger of Shepherdstown, W. Va.'s crank-hanger back-pedaling brake, a mocking look at Martin Fesler of Salt Lake City's overcomplicated back-pedaling brake, and a saddle-spring patent by G. A. Ross of Providence, R.I.
- The standing new-products department covers the Fulton Machine Works' revived Thistle bicycle line, the Waltham Mfg. Co. fitting Morrow coaster brakes to Orient tandems, the Bishop & Babcock Co.'s carbonic-gas automatic tire inflator, the Highwater Mfg. Co.'s detachable pants-cuff, the New Brunswick Tire Co.'s six-pattern tire line, one-legged cyclist Charles Kilpatrick's Iver Johnson-sponsored circus stunt at Madison Square Garden, LeRoy Bicycle Co.'s 1900 models, and the Rochester Camera & Supply Co.'s Poco cycle camera.
- The Century Wheelmen of New York reversed last year's ban on women riders after a stormy club meeting, restoring them to the club's century runs beginning with the season's first century on April 29; the Cycle Age editorializes against the practice of women riding 100-mile road races.
- Paced riders Edouard Taylor, A. B. Walters and Tom Linton petitioned Parc des Princes track manager Desgrange to bar motor-tricycle pacemakers after every rider but Bauge used tricycle pace (some with two motors) in the Paris season-opening fifty-kilometer race, citing unfair power advantages and the tricycles' hazardous width on the track.
- An editorial opposes the Automobile Club of America's proposed 120-foot-wide coast-to-coast boulevard, endorsed by Major-General Miles, arguing the League of American Wheelmen's more modest $5,000,000 highway-aid request was wiser, and proposes state-administered government road-aid funding, as in Massachusetts, instead.
- National Cycling Association president John A. Blaurock, back from a two-month Paris trip, reports on an upcoming International Cycling Association executive-committee meeting to curb Great Britain's outsized three-country voting bloc (England, Ireland and Scotland) and describes trade feeling running against I.C.A. secretary Sturmey.
- At the Parc des Princes season opener, Courbe d'Outrelon scored a surprise scratch-race win shortly after announcing his retirement, while Bouhours won the fifty-kilometer paced race over Linton, Walters and Bauge despite a tire blowout; the report also covers American pacemen Elkes and Ross's crash during Prince track training.
- A cluster of untitled racing and touring items: Minneapolis's mayor sending the city's bicycle-license ordinance back for amendment, Philadelphia planning an inter-city club century run from Newark, Chicago's cycling clubs abandoning their Decoration Day and Labor Day road races, L.A.W. president Sams's new standing-committee appointments, Jean Gougoltz's wins at the Toulon meet, and the Los Angeles Velodrome's eight-day race results topped by McFarland, Freeman and Iver Lawson.
- Reports on side-path construction nationwide: the L.A.W.'s 968-mile New York-to-Chicago "trunk line" side path, Detroit wheelmen's plan to link to it via Toledo, a Denver-Golden path survey, new path grading in Portland, Ore., Minneapolis and St. Paul path repairs, the Flint, Mich. Cycle Path Association's Long Lake path, and the nearly finished 52-mile Denver-Palmer Lake bicycle path.
- Closing miscellany including the Brockton, Mass. track's April 19 opening program, W. E. Metzger's revival of Detroit's Belle Isle Decoration Day road race, racers Weinig, Thompson and McEachern taking up boxing while training at Louisville, a New Jersey assembly bill banning Sunday bicycle and automobile racing, a campaign for a bicycle path across the Brooklyn Bridge, and L.A.W. membership renewals running ahead of recent years.