The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 25, No 136

Articles in this issue

• Snyder Answer in Bottom Bracket Suit (opens in a new tab)

  The H.P. Snyder Manufacturing Co. filed its formal answer to the A.B.C.'s bottom bracket patent suit, arguing that the American Bicycle Company was an illegal combination formed to monopolize the bicycle trade, that the patent was acquired as part of a conspiracy to restrain competition, and that the Smith patent itself lacked novelty and had been anticipated by prior art — making it an invalid basis for the suit.
• No Monopoly in Wood Rims: A.B.C. Loses Suit Under Indiana Novelty Co. Patents (opens in a new tab)

  The A.B.C. trust lost a wood rim patent suit with a former decision reaffirmed in a test case against the Crocker Chair Co., while the Plymouth, Indiana wood rim plant of the Indiana Novelty Mfg. Co. was sold and its machinery removed, indicating the trust's wood rim business was not prospering.
• Bicycle Not a Carriage: Supreme Court of Massachusetts Holds that Streets Need Not be Kept Safe for Cycling (opens in a new tab)

  The Massachusetts Supreme Court held in Richardson v. Town of Danvers that a bicycle is not a 'carriage' under the 1786 highway maintenance statute, ruling that municipalities were not legally obligated to keep roads safe for cyclists and overturning an $850 verdict for a woman injured on an uneven road.
• Long Live the Clipper (opens in a new tab)

  The Cycle Age's editorial mourned the closure of the Grand Rapids Clipper factory by the trust, arguing that the Clipper's acknowledged quality superiority was precisely what made its discontinuation inevitable under the A.B.C.'s consolidation policy, which favored cheaper output over maintaining premium brand reputations.
• Philippines as a Market: Grand Opportunities for Cycle Trade Opened in Six Months of American Occupation (opens in a new tab)

  An observer at Iloilo described how American military occupation had rapidly created demand for bicycles throughout the Philippine Islands, noting that in nearly every important city and town a growing market had emerged where six months earlier bicycles had been virtually unknown to the native population.
• Current Coaster Brake Talk: Comment, Praise and Criticism by Tradesmen and Newspaper Writers (opens in a new tab)

  A survey of trade comment on coaster brakes noted that repairmen were concerned about spokes loosening under hub brake strains and that the devices were not 'fool proof,' with discussion of how tangent-laced wheels distributed the drive strain differently and required more careful adjustment when fitted with coaster brake hubs.