The Springfield Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 3, No 3
Articles in this issue
- Detailed account of the L.A.W. annual meet at Buffalo, July 2–3, 1885, covering officer elections (Beckwith re-elected president, Terry vice-president, Kendall treasurer, Aaron secretary), the amateur definition debate, the grand parade of over 600 riders from Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Canadian divisions, and the race results including Hendee winning the one-mile bicycle championship.
- Editorial defending the bicycle's practical utility in response to the Buffalo Express calling it "a pretty toy," citing the 107-man Big Four tour covering 100 miles in a single day as evidence of the wheel's worth as a means of locomotion.
- Race programme for the Connecticut Bicycle Club meet at Hartford, September 2 and 3, listing all events across two days including novice, tricycle, amateur, professional, and championship races.
- Letter from London dated June 12, 1885, reviewing the British racing season: Furnival's run of six wins, young Illston's sprinting sensation at Birmingham, the London Bicycle Club's Bath-to-London 100-mile road race won by Watson, tricyclist performances, the CTC muster of 17,700 members, and the N.C.U.'s new road-record authentication system.
- Letter from an American tourist based in Coventry, England, describing his quest to have a bicycle built combining ten specific design principles (large front wheel, treadle motion, no dead centre, rear-wheel brake, etc.) and his mixed reception from Coventry manufacturers, with praise for Mr. Hillman of Hillman, Herbert & Cooper and engineer J. H. Greenhill.
- Brief report by Herm. H. Koop Jr. of Brooklyn on the progress of cycling in Germany, noting the 1884 merger of two rival bodies into the Deutsche Radfahrer-Bund with 3,775 members and the growth of the sport in Bremen, where the leading club has just laid a cinder path.
- Column of short cycling news items by C. Jones of Buffalo covering the coming Springfield tournament, S. Sellers winning the English mile championship in 2m. 47 1-5s. on a 58-inch Rudge, Thomas Stevens's overland bicycle journey, Illston and Cox as dark horses at Springfield, and various trade and club gossip.
- Short notes from Stamford, Connecticut, on local cycling activity including Lieutenant Hendrie's new 51-inch Light Roadster, recent Expert Columbia conversions among business men, and a request for special railway rates between New York and Springfield for the tournament.
- Observational notes from the L.A.W. Buffalo meet covering Hendee's championship mile in 2.44, the League parade order, Beckwith's re-election, the disposal of the L.A.W. organ controversy, and anticipation of the Springfield September tournament.
- Letter from Wallace Hilton, president of the Clearfield Bicycle Club, Pennsylvania, describing J. E. Harder's 72-mile ride from Clearfield to Lock Haven on an American Rudge 54-inch bicycle in under 18 hours over mixed roads, claiming it a remarkable feat open to challengers.
- Club news covering the Peoria Bicycle Club's planned 15-day northern tour through Rock Island, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Lake Minnetonka, and the Wisconsin Dells, plus the Wilkesbarre Bicycle Club's fifth anniversary road race won by Shepherd Ayars in 1h. 31m. 28s., and the Coldwater (Mich.) division L.A.W. meet programme.
- List of newly elected officers for thirteen clubs including the Capital Bicycle Club (Washington D.C.), Dayton Bicycle Club, East Saginaw Bicycle Club, Madison County Wheelmen (Missouri), Marblehead Bicycle Club, and Wheeling (W.Va.) Wheelmen.
- Calendar of coming cycling events from July 1 through October 3, 1885, plus detailed results of the Bartholomew County Wheelmen's July 3–4 races at Columbus, Indiana, including winners Phil Hammel and F. B. Bradley in various events.
- List of U.S. patents granted through June 16, 1885 for velocipede-related devices compiled by Shipley Brashears, plus trade notes on Zacharias & Smith's Patton cradle spring and the American Challenge bicycle from Gormully & Jeffery of Chicago.
- Narrative by "Stamson" of the Solitary Club's bicycle tour along Long Island's south shore from Jamaica through Hempstead, Seaford, West Babylon, Babylon, and Islip to Patchogue, describing the flat Island roads, a sidepath tumble at Islip, and encounters with a century-old mill and August Belmont's estate.
- Brief review of J. G. Dalton's 160-page collection of bicycle poems (Boston: E. C. Hodges & Co., $1.00), including a combative note from Dalton complaining that the Gazette had ignored the book's second edition.
- Comic poem in the style of "Fine Old English Gentleman" about a vain Columbia wheelman who cuts a fine figure on Park Avenue until a header on a rocky road reduces him to "a torn and muddy, bruised and bloody mass of rags and bones."
- Racing and touring notes from Ohio covering the Canton Fourth of July medal races, a special one-mile match at Cleveland between Asa Dolph (champion Ohio), W. M. Woodside (champion Ireland), and John Brooks (champion Pennsylvania) won by Dolph in 3.02½, and the Kenton Club's 150-mile July tour to Yellow Springs.
- Extract by Karl Kron from advance sheets of "Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle" recounting the arduous 22-mile bicycle circuit of Mount Desert Island, Maine, in June 1883, during which six of ten riders bent their handle-bars on the rocky roads, with a note about the forthcoming 1885 Down-East tour organised by F. A. Elwell.
- Tour account by "Stamson" of a June run from Stamford, Connecticut, through Greenwich, Port Chester, White Plains, and down the Hudson to Hastings and Yonkers, covering 65 miles on Victor and Expert Columbia bicycles along fine river roads.
- Technical paper by Lt. F. J. Drake, U.S.N., reprinted from the May Outing, reporting tensile, compression, and torsion test results for the six steel grades used by the Pope Manufacturing Company in Columbia bicycle construction, with a tabulated comparison of hub-shafts, handle-bars, felloes, ball-bearing cases, pedal shafts, and steering heads.
- Account of champion John S. Prince and W. J. Morgan's visit to Memphis Medical College, where Professor W. M. Fuqua invited Prince to address 300 students on the healthful effects of bicycle racing, after which both men were anatomically examined to show students the muscles developed by the sport.
- "Spokes" in Turf, Field and Farm traces the careers of America's early professional cyclists—Thomas and George Harrison, Charles Booth, John Wilson, the De Noiles, Belard, William Wright, and Fred Rollinson—noting where each man ended up, from Australian gold diggings to San Francisco prison to a New York bakery.
- Description by Jay A. Hinman of Oshkosh of a ten-foot-diameter unicycle invented by mechanic John Rasey, in which a standard 48-inch bicycle sits inside a massive outer wheel propelled by hand cranks and endless chains, with skeptical commentary on whether the top-heavy machine will achieve practical speed.
- Column of selected excerpts from other cycling and general papers commenting on Springfield's record-breaking culture, the amateur-professional debate, club-house superiority, and humorous observations from the Norristown Herald, Cyclist, Canadian Wheelman, and others including a French notice praising the Gazette.
- Satirical piece framed as a school recitation in which "Uncle Sam's" class answers questions proving Columbia bicycles are pre-eminent in every field, from Thomas Stevens's round-the-world ride to Karl Kron's 10,000-mile journey and C. D. Kershaw's 11,000 miles in 14 months on an Expert Columbia.