The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 25, No 131
Articles in this issue
- Saturday had become recognized as 'bicycle bargain day' in Buffalo, where a sustained price war had pushed machines once offered at $27.50 down to as little as $13, with buyers discovering the cheapest bicycles came with poor-quality tires that wore through after a week's use.
- T.C. Page resigned as manager of the Lamb Manufacturing Co. rather than oversee the A.B.C.'s consolidation of New England bicycle production into Hartford and Westfield, having founded the company in 1867 and built it into a leading bicycle maker over ten years.
- A fire originating in the boiler room destroyed the plants of the Canada Cycle & Motor Co. and the Welland Vale Manufacturing Co. in St. Catharines, Ontario, causing aggregate losses of $500,000 and gutting one of the largest consolidated bicycle manufacturing operations in Canada.
- A roundup of trade rumors and small items: Milwaukee capitalists William H. Starke, Edward Niedecken and Charles A. Rohde organizing the Milwaukee Rubber Co. to make bicycle and automobile tires; Canton, Ohio dealers reporting bicycle sales roughly double last season's; talk of a bicycle parts factory for Hackensack, N.J.; and the newly chartered Carter Ball Bearing Chain Co.'s planned $100,000 plant near Hays Station, Pa.
- The Snow Cycle Chain Co. plant in Syracuse was to be moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where Crosby and Dana would consolidate it with their Springfield Drop Forging Co. operation, continuing the pair's strategy of building an independent parts manufacturing base.
- The old and widely known sporting goods firm of Hartley & Graham of New York was reorganized as the M. Hartley Co. with $500,000 capital stock following the death of Mr. Graham fifteen months earlier, though plans for the new corporation to absorb the old firm had not yet been finalized.
- The National Cycle & Automobile Co., Canadian branch of the American Bicycle Co., resumed work on its long-delayed new Hamilton, Ontario factory after amending its original plans to fit the funds subscribed by local citizens, with J. J. Scott overseeing the building fund on behalf of Hamilton subscribers.
- Manufacturers in market-sensitive lines were adopting supply contracts that price goods at the market rate on the actual date of shipment rather than at order time, a practice reported by the Stoves and Hardware Reporter as protecting both buyer and seller against price swings on large orders such as tubing.
- Germany's cycle import and export trade fell sharply in the first quarter of 1900, with imports down 1,272 hundredweight (about $75,000) and exports down 14,000 hundredweight (about $200,000) from the same period in 1899, though shipments to Belgium, Denmark, France, Britain, Italy, Holland, Russia and British East India rose.
- S. A. Marmon and L. T. Wilmarth, president and secretary-manager of the trust-owned Grand Rapids Cycle Co., organized the independent Wilmarth & Marmon Co. with $50,000 capital, taking over Fuller Mfg. Co. of Kalamazoo's Yankee drill-grinder business with Charles D. Fuller as treasurer and Charles E. Meech as general manager.
- E. C. Stearns severed his connection with the American Bicycle Co. as general manager of its Syracuse operation to devote his time to the Anglo-American Automobile Co., which opened a plant in the former Barnes Cycle Co. building; Herbert E. Maslin was named to manage the A.B.C.'s Syracuse business.
- L. J. Berger resigned the editorship of the Wheel amid conflicting rumors about the cause, one version discreditable to the American Bicycle Co. and another a flat denial that the trust had any role in the resignation; Cycle Age declined to take sides pending further investigation.
- Responding to the Wheel's item questioning why Luthy & Co. of Peoria appeared on a list of manufacturers outside the bicycle trust alongside firms like Iver Johnson and Pierce, Cycle Age clarified that Luthy & Co. does make bicycles, though only as a modest sideline to its main business, and is a thoroughly responsible concern.
- American bicycle manufacturers seeking to expand their Mexican trade were advised on documentation requirements, customs procedures, and the necessity of accurate packing lists, with the Mexican Central Railway's customs department noted as offering a cost-effective service for clearing shipments at Juarez.
- Minneapolis-St. Paul jobbers reported the best bicycle month in the history of the Twin Cities trade, with re-orders running 15 to 25 percent above the same period a year earlier and shipping crews working overtime; low prices, higher wages and riders trading up to better saddles, handlebars and chains were credited for the boom.
- Jesse H. Bailey, former assignee of the failed Spaulding & Pepper Co. of Chicopee Falls, Mass., was sentenced to five years in the county jail after pleading guilty to embezzling $5,500 of creditors' funds, which his bonding company was expected to make good along with roughly $10,000 for distribution to creditors.
- An editorial argues that despite decades of spring frames, forks, saddles and cranks, the pneumatic tire alone had not eliminated road vibration, and that the modern cushion frame -- now adopted by several reputable makers and proven commercially by dealers and riders alike -- finally delivers comfort without sacrificing speed.
- An editorial accuses department stores, including one prominent Chicago store, of undercutting legitimate dealers by selling handlebars, seat posts, tires, rims, spokes, crank hangers and brackets to uninformed customers at near-wholesale prices, citing a buyer who purchased mismatched hanger and bracket parts without understanding fitting requirements.
- A nationwide roundup of dealer letters on trade conditions, including B. E. Pudney of Sidney, N.Y. and Latta Bros. of Friendship, N.Y. on being forced to sell outside the trust, Corp Bros. of Providence, R.I. reporting strong sales of $50 machines, and dealers in Kalispell, Mont., Portland, Ore. and Ft. Wayne, Ind. describing sidepaths, sidelines and anti-trust sentiment.
- A continuing technical feature (its opening page is missing from the scan) describes the clutch and coaster-lock mechanism of the Doremus Automatic Tire Brake, explaining how the driving and brake clutches, bell crank and brake shoe work together to apply braking force to the rear tire when the rider back-pedals.
- A Cycle Age reporter found that no one at the Chicago headquarters of the American Bicycle Co.'s trust brands could explain the interior construction of either the Columbia back-pedaling brake or the Stearns hub brake, with one trust representative shrugging that customers judge a brake by its outside, not its mechanism.
- The New Departure Bell Co. of Bristol, Conn. announced its coaster brake hub is now built with flanges for regular bent spokes instead of radial lugs, and with the brake cap formed as part of the hub shell so the mechanism can be serviced without unlacing the wheel.
- A newly granted English patent describes a bicycle chain rivet design intended to let makers use fully hardened rivets, with a reduced, countersunk end that wedges into the side-plate hole and is then spun over with a punch rather than pounded down.
- A lecture on technical education at the Coventry Technical Institute Engineering Society argued that cycle engineers were too narrowly specialized -- citing manufacturers who rushed jobs to pattern makers without understanding the work involved -- and urged workers to learn the underlying principles of the whole trade, not just their own task.
- Quoting Farm Machinery, the piece describes dealers nationwide adopting more uniform, professional business methods than in earlier years, moving from an amateurish 'blacksmith and farmer' image to keeping proper books and understanding cash versus credit terms.
- O. G. Pendill of Battle Creek, Mich. demonstrates, with an illustrated step-by-step method, how to fold and cement the ends of a bicycle inner tube around a short round stick to make a clean splice, a technique the article says many repairmen and even tire experts still don't know.
- A Chicago men's-furnishings store combated spring sun glare in its west-facing window by hanging a curtain painted with a sun and the slogan 'The sun our only competitor,' a display idea the article suggests bicycle dealers could adapt.
- An English-made grinding machine for repair shops, driven by a countershaft with flat and grooved pulleys, grinds hub and hanger cones -- old or new -- as accurately as costlier equipment, though no domestic maker yet offers a foot-powered version.
- Every firm selling bicycles in Indianapolis will field a rider in a one-mile open race for dealers at the Decoration Day meet at Newby Oval, with losers buying the winners' supper and each maker expected to claim credit for the outcome.
- A. E. Snow of Kewanee, Ill. designed a wall-mounted storage rack using alternating long and short oblique rods spaced about eight inches apart so front wheels can be hung close together without the machines touching, keeping the floor clear for sweeping.
- E. G. Latta of Friendship, N.Y. patented a three-lug bottom-bracket design using a socket and bolted half-shells to sidestep the American Bicycle Co.'s contested 'millionaire' bottom-bracket patent, joining the independents' growing arsenal of non-infringing crank-hanger constructions.
- An editorial promotes the triple steering head -- recently patented for the Lyndhurst bicycle by C. F. Harrington of McKee & Harrington, New York -- as sound engineering that distributes fork strain across two continuous blades rather than one tube, yielding rigidity, safety and speed that the trade has been slow to recognize.
- J. E. O'Neill of Waupaca, Wis. patented a magnetic front-fork regulator using paired permanent magnets and steel armatures to keep a parked bicycle's front wheel in line, which the writer mocks as relying on faith as much as physics and suggests a pair of springs would work just as well.
- Quoting F. H. Hendryx in the Butcher's Advocate, the piece urges small merchants to stop doing menial tasks a $4-a-week boy could handle and instead organize their stores like an army commander, giving each clerk defined duties and holding them accountable.
- Citing the Keystone, the article describes how retailers increasingly use mirrors to display goods from multiple angles with fewer pieces, protecting merchandise from sun fading while doubling light in salesrooms and windows.
- Quoting the Farm Implement News and an unnamed Iowa dealer, the piece argues that shippers should follow a dealer's specified route or method (mail, express or freight) exactly as ordered, since deviating -- even with good intentions -- creates delays, expense and justified complaints.
- A digest of trade notices: the Michigan Cement & Sundry Co. of Niles, Mich. (the Tappan brothers' Eagle sundries) expanding tape production to 1,400 pounds daily; the Superior Cycle Co. of West Superior, Wis. building narrow-tread road racers; Purseglove & Duffy of Northampton, Mass. praising the Morrow coaster brake after a tandem descent of Mt. Tom; G. W. Cole & Co.'s '3-in-1' compound; and the Rockford (Ill.) Republic's compliment to independent maker Louis Manson of the Manson Cycle Co.
- Harry Elkes lost a 50-mile motor-paced match to French champion Edouard Taylor in Antwerp by just 300 meters after falling at the 25-mile mark, with French critics rating the American's form equal to Taylor's despite the tumble.
- Indianapolis dealers donated more than a dozen bicycles -- three times the usual number -- as prizes for the extended 25-mile Decoration Day road race over Broad Ripple and White River roads, with entries pouring in from Indiana, Ohio, Illinois and Kentucky.
- The League of American Wheelmen's constitution-revision committee and executive officers -- Conway Sams, A. B. Choate and R. T. Kingsbury -- met in Washington to weigh incorporating the league under a new law, with New York chief consul Milo Belding predicting incorporation within the year.
- John A. Blaurock resigned the presidency of the National Cycling Association, saying he was too busy to give the office proper attention after representing it in Paris before the French cycling union; George Cooke, president of the Harlem Wheelmen, was appointed to succeed him.
- A Toledo, Ohio city council sub-committee met with wheelmen including Milton Gill, W. G. Alexander, Charles R. Clapp and Fred Ayling to discuss building bicycle paths from license-fee funds, tentatively favoring routes on Cherry and Madison streets.
- The American Racing Cyclists' Union's executive committee rescheduled its meeting on rider suspensions to Newark so that Nat Butler, Major Taylor and Tom Butler -- absent from an earlier Louisville date -- could attend and plead their own cases.
- Resenting the American Bicycle Co.'s refusal to employ racers this season, members of the American Cyclists' Racing Union began switching to independent machines, including John Nelson's Chicago-built Nelson Special and Eddie Bald's new Hedstrom Special, on which Bald rode a mile in 1:35 behind pace.
- Cycle Age announced that starting June 6 its first issue of each month would become an enlarged Special Dealers' Trade Number featuring an Information for Buyers department, repairmen's hints and a monthly news summary, with the June 6 number circulated to every dealer in New England on the paper's list.
- An advertising-advice piece urges dealers to keep ads terse -- stating only the essential, attention-getting points in the fewest words or a single strong picture -- arguing that successful advertising often depends on knowing what to leave unsaid.
- Quoting Printer's Ink, the piece compares advertising to an investment like gold mining, arguing it rarely pays off immediately but builds cumulative momentum -- like a freight train gathering speed -- so long-continued, consistent advertising eventually brings steadily increasing returns.
- Before 4,000 spectators at Vailsburg, Jay Eaton beat Freeman in a mile-heats match, Frank Kramer unveiled a blistering finishing sprint to win the half-mile open, and Kramer dead-heated with McFarland in a sensational two-mile handicap in 4:10 2-5, the fastest scratch time ever made in a handicap race there.
- The Bordeaux-Paris road race was postponed to June 9 after French authorities banned motor pacing following a fatal Paris-Roubaix automobile accident; separately, Louis Louvet scored a surprise win over Jacquelin at Paris's Parc des Princes, and Osmont won a chaotic Paris hour motocycle race after Beconnais, Vasseur and Fossier all suffered mechanical mishaps.
- The Olympic Club Wheelmen crossed the line first in the 100-mile San Francisco Bay relay but were disqualified for passing a handkerchief instead of the race packet on the final relay, handing the Leavitt & Bill trophy to the Garden City Wheelmen of San Jose.
- Salt Lake City's first meet of the season at the Salt Palace coliseum track was set for June 8, headlined by John M. Chapman and Iver Lawson racing a motor tandem against the fast horse Miss Remson over a half mile on Decoration Day.
- John Nelson won an inconclusive 25-mile motor-paced match at Cincinnati's Chester Park after Charles Porter fell near the 17th mile when his pacing tandem swerved; an improvised five-mile motor-tandem match followed, which Nelson's team won in 9:03.
- William R. Brown completed a 2,000-mile road ride over Long Island turnpikes in 225 hours 8.5 minutes, setting new records for every distance over 1,000 miles despite rain delays and reports that he was consumptive.
- At two race meets in Turin, Italy, Tommaselli won the Prize of Florence by inches over Meyers and Grogna, was pocketed out of the Grand Prize of Italy final (won by Meyers), and won a second scratch race from Magli and Aghemio.
- Track builder Jack Prince, backed by George M. Hendee and Charles T. Shean, contracted to build a steeply banked six-lap board coliseum track in Springfield, Mass. and another in Hartford, Conn., with Bald, Cooper, Michael, John Fisher and George Collett already lined up as attractions.
- Edouard Taylor won Berlin's Golden Wheel one-hour race before nearly 15,000 spectators at the Friedenau track, covering 55 kilometers 725 meters after tandem-pacing accidents eliminated Bouhours, Robl and Lesna, with Englishman Walters second.
- The League of American Wheelmen's touring committee mapped six trunk routes for cyclists, including two alternatives from New York to Chicago and connections from Boston to New York and Washington, warning riders that a 50-cent sidepath tag from the New York division is required to use certain paths.
- At London's Catford track, Gascoyne beat Jenkins two heats to one in a three-heat challenge match, while Platt-Betts broke the English ten-mile record with a time of 17:19 1-5 at the same meet.
- Danish champion Ellegaard swept every race over a three-day carnival in Moscow, becoming the first foreign rider to leave the city unbeaten by winning three scratch races and the international match against Russian and other foreign competitors.
- Short racing-scene items include a new quarter-mile track under construction at Pecatonica, Ill., upcoming motor-paced matches at Cleveland, New Bedford and Baltimore, Jimmy Michael training down to 1:48 miles, Oshkosh cyclists petitioning for a bicycle tax to fund street improvements, and Boston riders teasing Dudley Marks over his wrong prediction against Harry Elkes.
- Quoting the Jewelers' Review, the piece advises small-town merchants facing mail-order catalogue competition to track competitors' offerings and rely on their trade paper to learn promptly what's new, who makes it, and what it should cost.