The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 25, No 134
Articles in this issue
- Fire destroyed the Wisconsin Wheel Works factory in Racine at a loss of $80,000 to $100,000, just as the busy season was closing with 16,000 bicycles produced and orders for 2,500 to 3,000 more outstanding, throwing over 200 workers out of employment.
- Demand for second-hand bicycles in Cleveland was unusually strong, driven by mechanics unable to afford new machines during recent labor troubles, while country dealers were buying up lots of used stock from city dealers to resell in smaller towns.
- The Grand Rapids Clipper bicycle factory, whose closure the Cycle Age had predicted months earlier only to be officially denied, was confirmed to be winding down by September 1, with Michigan's anti-trust franchise tax making it prohibitively expensive to operate the plant as a trust subsidiary.
- The Eagle bottom bracket patent argument was pushed back to the December court term because both the plaintiff's and defendant's counsel were planning extended European trips during the summer, further delaying a case already expected to take years to resolve.
- The Columbia Manufacturing Co. of Cleveland, originally formed to make bicycle sprockets and later converted to sanitary specialties, was placed in receivership after accumulating $15,000 in debts, with creditors bringing replevin suits against its assets.
- American bicycle, parts, and sundries makers seeking foreign trade were advised to write to customers in their own language, comply precisely with foreign invoice and customs requirements, and adapt business practices to local conditions, with an account of how American machines had captured the Montevideo market included as illustration.
- While manufacturers systematically educated their engineers, designers, and factory workers, they neglected to properly educate their purchasing agents, who held positions requiring broad knowledge of materials, manufacturing processes, and commercial conditions — a gap the article argued was costing companies dearly.
- Inspired by Charles Murphy's famous mile-a-minute bicycle ride behind a Long Island locomotive, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad conducted its own trials with a cyclist behind one of its engines on a downgrade, achieving surprisingly fast speeds and generating fresh interest in the relationship between railroad drafting and bicycle performance.