The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 25, No 139
Articles in this issue
- The Manson Cycle Co. was placed in receivership on a petition from two creditors with combined claims of only $700, prompting L.H. Manson to file a $50,000 counterclaim for wrongful seizure while proposing a creditor stock-for-debt arrangement that would allow the business to continue; assets were approximately $120,000 against liabilities of $110,000.
- The Single Tube Automobile & Bicycle Tire Co. filed suit against the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. alleging it had sold from 100,000 to 200,000 pairs of tires at prices far below the $2.75 to $4.25 minimum set by the Tillinghast license, with a temporary injunction granted by the court and a similar suit filed against the India Rubber Co.
- Frank T. Fowler and J. Elmer Pratt were negotiating to establish a new independent bicycle company in Grand Rapids, with plans to move Fowler's existing factory across Lake Michigan and sell half the capital stock locally, using the personnel and reputation of the former Clipper bicycle operation.
- The paper analyzed the perennial proposal to bypass jobbers and sell directly from manufacturer to dealer or consumer, arguing that despite the surface appeal of eliminating middleman profits, practical obstacles including the need for extensive credit, warehousing, and customer service almost always forced a return to the established distribution system.
- The editorial argued that while enthusiasts had been projecting a commercial boom in motor bicycles ever since gasoline engines proved workable, the practical difficulties of attaching a motor to a bicycle in a safe, reliable, and salable form remained substantial, and the trade should proceed cautiously before committing resources to the new technology.
- Cleveland bicycle dealers organized to resist E.S. Calkins' demands for $5 royalty payments from each user of bicycle racks after he served over 1,000 infringement notices in the city, retaining attorney W.A. Skinkle for their defense and receiving pledges of legal support from the Romans and other rack manufacturers.
- The Badger Brass Co. promoted its new Fortis electrical exerciser through a pamphlet titled 'A Shocking Exercise,' describing an apparatus similar in general appearance to the Whiteley exerciser but fitted with an electrical attachment that combined mechanical resistance training with electrical stimulation.
- A Chicago bicycle repair shop owner described how an accidental overheating of his new enameling oven on opening day unexpectedly produced a novel and attractive finish on a bicycle frame, leading him to deliberately reproduce and refine the process into a commercially distinctive service offering.
- A technical article discussed metallurgical topics pertinent to bicycle manufacture including best annealing practices for different steel tempers, the critical importance of excluding air from the annealing chamber to prevent surface oxidation, and the principles governing the selection of steel grades for frame and component applications.
- The sport section opened with an editorial denouncing the mismanagement of the L.A.W.'s annual meet in Milwaukee as ammunition for press pessimists, arguing that the dismal attendance was wholly the fault of organizational failures and not evidence of a general decline in cycling popularity.
- A detailed account of the League of American Wheelmen's twenty-first annual meet in Milwaukee catalogued its many shortcomings: attendance under one thousand with barely a third from out of state, abandoned club runs, entertainments that mocked their ambitious billing, a dangerously under-banked indoor race track, and the absence of the best professional racing talent.
- Chicago's John Nelson won the six-day Golden Wheel race at Charles River Park in an unprecedented display of combined speed and endurance, defeating Pierce, Stinson, and Miller in six successive two-hour motor-paced races across consecutive days to claim the prize.
- Harry Elkes won two paced races in the same afternoon at the Friedenau track in Berlin before a crowd of 6,000, defeating Edouard Taylor easily in both a ten-kilometer and a twenty-kilometer event and breaking records despite one of his pacing teams suffering mechanical problems during the shorter race.