The Cycle Age and Trade Review, Vol 25, No 143
Articles in this issue
- The American Bicycle Company refused to sign a proposed labor agreement submitted by the International Bicycle Workers' Union that would have required the trust to recognize union locals, hire only union card holders, and submit disputes to arbitration in exchange for the union label and removal of past labor grievances — with the Louisville union retaliating by campaigning publicly against Pope Mfg. as an unfair shop.
- Denver bicycle dealers and repairers continued winning dismissals in police court against the city's effort to collect a $50 second-hand dealers' license, with judges repeatedly ruling that accepting trade-ins or selling on commission did not constitute second-hand dealing, while the dealers designated one appeal case to serve as the definitive test of the ordinance's validity.
- The principal independent steel ball manufacturers — the Grant Ball Co., Cleveland Ball & Screw Co., Chicago Steel Ball Co., and others — quietly formed an arrangement to sell their entire outputs through the Central Distributing Co. of Buffalo, effectively creating a ball-making combination while keeping the details of ownership and organization secret.
- A correspondent visiting the 1900 Paris Exposition found the American Bicycle Company's exhibit located in an obscure building sixteen miles from the main grounds, unknown even to professional guides and drawing virtually no visitors, a humiliating contrast to the trust's boastful claims about dominating the global bicycle market.
- Brief trade items including a Berlin proposal to erect public cycling pavilions where riders could store bicycles for a small charge, the Canfield Brake Co.'s relocation of its factory from Syracuse to Buffalo under Robert Canfield, and other short manufacturing and dealer notes from across the trade.
- The editorial noted that the ball manufacturers' Central Distributing Company arrangement was proceeding despite efforts to keep it quiet, observing that while such combinations among independent producers were understandable defensive responses to trust pressure, the trade should be watchful for any attempt to use the arrangement as a cover for raising prices above competitive levels.
- The Cycle Age published practical arguments for standardizing bicycle spoke count at 32 holes in both front and rear wheels, summarizing the broad trade response to its standardization campaign and explaining why the mechanical differences between front and rear spoke angles did not justify maintaining different hole counts for the two wheels.
- The patent column described a tool for injecting plastic cement into tire repairs using a discharge tube with interior screw-thread coupling to direct sealant precisely into the damaged area, along with three other recent bicycle patent grants including saddle and crank improvements.
- The paper explained the actual legal scope of a patent right — that it prevents others from making, using, or selling the patented article but grants no positive right to practice the invention against other existing patents — clarifying for readers why so many bicycle patent disputes produced apparently unjust outcomes for inventors whose patents were blocked by prior claims.
- The sport section opened with the results of the first day of international cycling championships at the Parc des Princes in Paris, reporting that Tom Cooper won a heat in 1:43 1-5 and McFarland had paid his N.C.A. fine to compete, then covered American club racing leading up to the world meet.
- John Nelson broke all American motor-paced records from three to thirty miles (with the single exception of twenty-five miles) at a Philadelphia meeting, defeating McEachern by a lap in 48:04 2-5 in the thirty-mile event despite McEachern losing a lap and a half's time when his saddle broke during the race.
- A historical and technical essay traced how the design of racing machines paced behind motor vehicles had evolved from ordinary road-bicycle proportions toward the extreme geometries needed for efficient speed, describing the progressive changes in frame angles, gearing ratios, and riding position that had pushed paced performance far beyond what free-riding machines could achieve.
- At Antwerp, Harry Elkes recovered from a full mile's deficit caused by pacing team problems to defeat Edouard Taylor, Simar, and Burger in a one-hour race on the Zurembourg track, making up the lost ground in less than nine minutes in what observers described as an astonishing display of sustained power output.
- Frank Kramer captured the half-mile national championship at the grand circuit meeting at Asbury Park's one-third-mile dirt track, winning a bitterly contested sprint against Earl Kiser who had fought every inch of the final straightaway before Kramer's superior speed decided the outcome.