The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 12, No 24
Articles in this issue
- The editor praises Vanderbilt University's highway construction curriculum as an opportunity for League work, critiques W.A. Rowe's private time trials as less valuable than public competition, and advocates race-meet reforms including larger contestant numbers and appointment of district handicappers.
- Reprinted from the Chicago Inter-Ocean, reporting that Vanderbilt University's Dean Landreth will offer a free February–April course in highway construction and drainage to county road commissioners, the first such provision at an American university.
- A correspondent returned from New England reports the Minneapolis Bicycle Club's unanimous vote to consolidate with the Mercury Club, and notes a merchants-and-farmers anti-cycling boycott movement in Willows, California, sparked by careless boy riders.
- Details the 33 prizes across 11 events at the East Hartford Wheel Club races on September 17, including a novel anti-loafing rule pooling first-place scratch-race prizes for the fastest mile times; C.F. Richmond and L.F. Brasch are noted as East Hartford entrants.
- W.T. Fleming (on a Victor) and J. Edgar Gould (on an Expert Columbia) of the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club describe their 3,500-mile tour from Philadelphia through New York State, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Indian Territory to Kansas City and back, averaging nearly 54 miles per day.
- About 30 Rhode Island Division L.A.W. members on a run to South Natick are rammed near Wellesley by driver Alfred J. Allen, who strikes the tricycle of Providence lawyer George L. Cooke; Dr. E.T. Bogman bluffs Allen into stopping with a nickel-plated medicine flask, and Justice Washburn fines Allen $10 plus costs totalling $16.79.
- Thomas Stevens rebukes the Pall Mall Gazette's hostile review of 'Around the World on a Bicycle,' defending its narrative directness and noting that while the Gazette compared him unfavourably to Stanley, Burnaby, and Mark Twain, he had no library to consult on his journey.
- Practical recipes for cyclists in hot weather, including egg lemonade with nutmeg, cold-water Russian tea steeped overnight, home soda water from druggist syphons with flavoured syrups, and soda milk.
- Full results from the Lynn Cycle Club Track Labor Day race meet, where W.A. Rowe dominated both professional events and H.S. Hart of New Britain won the three-mile amateur handicap in 8:37 4-5; the correspondent criticises poor management, microscopic numbers, and indistinguishable dark jerseys before an audience of about 1,800.
- Race calendar listing forthcoming meets from September 10 through October 6, including the Philadelphia Tryon Cup road race, N.A.A.A.A. championships, the New York State Division Meet at Cooperstown, the Detroit Bicycle Club races, and the Boston-to-Chicago road race.
- Full prize schedule for the Mitchell Bicycle Club's three-day meet September 28–30, covering amateur, professional, safety, and territorial championship events over distances from a quarter-mile to five miles, with total prizes of $327.95.
- Announces the Orange Wanderers' fall race programme on the Roseville, N.J. track on September 17, listing twelve events including novice, amateur handicap, tandem, lap, and club races, with entries closing September 14 with L.H. Johnson in Orange.
- Results of four Nassau Wheelmen events at Brooklyn Grounds on Labor Day: E.C. Parker (Harlem Wheelmen) won the one-mile handicap final in 3:05 2-5, J.W. Schoefer (Ilderan B.C.) won two mount-and-dismount events, and H.L. Powers took the three-mile handicap.
- Weekly news column covering the Gormully & Jeffery racing team quartered at Lynn, Overman Wheel Co.'s plans for boys' wheels from 38 to 48 inches, Harry Gordon's probable expulsion for racing a horse at Sedalia, Thomas Stevens' improving lecture tour with Major Pond, A.F. Webster and C.F. Lavender's 175-mile Toronto-to-Kingston ride in 21 hours 40 minutes, and the trial and discharge of English professional Fred Wood in Melbourne.
- Signed 'N.H.G.,' a first-person account of the R.I. Division L.A.W.'s Second Annual Excursion on September 5 to South Natick: road-hog Alfred J. Allen is stopped by Dr. Bogman's medicine-flask bluff and fined $16.79, after which the party dines at Bailey's Hotel, visits the Hunnewell estate, and races seven miles into Boston in 35 minutes.
- Julius Wilcox explains the planetary gear mechanism of the newly arrived Geared Facile bicycle, in which planet-wheel P (half the size of sun-wheel S) produces one-and-a-half turns of the driver per crank revolution; he notes it can be switched to ungeared running via sliding clutch and calls the geared axle 'the most beautiful piece of mechanism ever put into a bicycle.'
- Second instalment of a Stamford Advocate series by 'Stamson' recounting two American cyclists' arrival at Queenstown and Liverpool, their ride through Chester's Roman walls, cycling via Wrexham and Shrewsbury through Welsh border country to Birmingham, and finally to Coventry, the centre of Britain's cycle-making trade.
- Welcomes the Manhattan Bicycle Club, organised June 16, 1887, with about 30 members, $1 initiation and $1.25 quarterly dues, League affiliation, and weekly runs including a 30-man Coney Island outing; secretary Charles Sheehan at 5 Vanderbilt Avenue, N.Y.
- M. Frost won the Maverick Wheel Club's ten-mile Labor Day road race at Winthrop, Mass. in 40m 28½s; C. Wiggin was second and A.M. Skinner third, while Bigelow and Moody took headers on the second lap and withdrew.
- Legal certificate by Charles, Lewis M., and Charles M. Irving that they have formed a copartnership to continue the New York Bicycle Co. at 38 Park Place following Charles Irving's August 11, 1887 purchase of the stock and goodwill from C. Herbert Diamond.