The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 13, No 18
Articles in this issue
- The L.A.W. Reorganization Committee is set to meet in Buffalo on January 27 at 10 a.m., with the Buffalo Club offering their club-house; the committee has studied the question and received many letters with ideas on restructuring.
- The Manhattan Bicycle Club will hold its first reception at the Lexington Avenue Opera House on February 3, with an entertainment of music, recitation, and trick riding preceding dancing; tickets at $1 from Charles A. Sheehan.
- Karl Kron, writing from West Springfield, Mass., reports that he is compiling a 64-page pamphlet of press notices for his book 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle' and will distribute 5,000 copies gratis, noting that the original 3,000-subscriber canvass was launched by The Wheel's free advertisement of January 25, 1884.
- Baltimore correspondent 'Ralph' reports on League Meet preparations with C.C. Mealy assembling a committee of fifteen, and argues against compulsory League-club membership, suggesting division secretaries retain their share of dues rather than routing all money through the national secretary.
- Pittsburgh correspondent 'Keystone' reports on George Hendee's visit with the Springfield Roadster, a cancelled five-mile professional race suspected of being staged, and a call to abolish the Amateur Rule; a group of wheelmen also attended the Gillette show, where Gillette revealed he was still lame from a collision with a Denver & Rio Grande train.
- The Cambridge Bicycle Club held its fifth annual ball at Union Hall, Cambridgeport, with about 100 couples in the grand march led by President H.W. Hayes and Miss Alice Dorr; special guests included Captain A.D. Peck Jr. of the Massachusetts Bicycle Club and Dr. W.G. Kendall, captain of the Boston Bicycle Club.
- The Avondale Bicycle Club's minstrel troupe 'The New Coons' performed to a packed Avon Hall, raising about $250 toward finishing the gymnasium of their 30x50 club house, which also contains a reading room, billiard room, and wheel and dressing room with bath.
- The regular department covers: H.W. Gaskell at Rudge's London depot; the Royal Machine Co. of Birmingham winding up; Pope Manufacturing's first-ever direct representation at the Stanley Show; Lynn Cycle Club officer elections; Wallace Ross to appear at the Stanley Show on an American Racing tricycle made by D. Rudge & Co.; S.F. Edge's 7,201-mile riding year; and a New York piano tuner using his bicycle throughout the country for business calls.
- The paper publishes a letter of introduction given by Bob Ehrlett of Chicago to A.A. McCurdy of Lynn, recommending McCurdy to Minneapolis sportsman Tanner as 'the fastest Star rider in the world' who 'has run several hippodromes'—revealing an organised bicycle race-fixing scheme.
- Correspondent 'Bi' reports that Editor Jonas has been elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Louisiana Cycling Club; Chief Consul Hodgson may resign; the League is losing grip in the South partly due to the still-unresolved Mobile case; and E.C. Fanner has received a Gormully & Jeffery Challenge tandem, likely the first of its kind in the South.
- Connecticut correspondent 'Art' notes that the winter cold stopped even the Solitary Club's regular Facile rider; reports on Mr. Gaylor's Eagle Bicycle coming to market in spring (pedal-mount only, no step); and reflects nostalgically on the golden era of club runs in the early 1880s and the importance of cycle paths.
- The Roxbury Bicycle Club held its first annual ball at Oriental Hall with about 200 couples present, attracting cyclists from Boston and surrounding towns; the club, about three years old with fifty members, is led by President Dr. W.G. Emery.
- Chicago correspondent 'Claw Hammer' reports that Manager Garden of Pope Mfg Co. plans another Chicago-to-Pullman road race for Decoration Day; N.H. VanSicklen takes the Illinois championship as R.H. Ehlert departs for South America; and Phil Hammel's petition for reinstatement to racing has been denied unless he agrees never to race on bicycle or tricycle.
- At their January 17 annual meeting the Passaic County Wheelmen dissolved and reorganized as the Passaic County Wheeling and Athletic Association, adopting new bylaws providing for a gymnasium club house; the new body starts with 40 charter members and 25 additional applications.
- The Kings County Wheelmen's new club house is nearing completion, with a club-member opening scheduled for February 8 and a general wheelmen's opening on February 21, to be followed by a ladies' reception.
- Captain E. Irving Halsted submits the Harlem Wheelmen's 1887 mileage report showing 23,427 miles by 22 members; Halsted led with 4,601 miles and won the Century Medal for riding 100 miles in 9 hours 10 minutes, while Mrs. Elliott Mason was the only lady member to exceed 1,000 miles.
- A letter signed 'Phi Kappa Psi' from Birmingham, Alabama appeals to The Herald to press Jefferson County Commissioners to enforce the legislature-authorized $200,000 road-improvement bond issue, arguing that the booming New South has not a single second-class country road to show for its enterprise.
- Reviews the Tisdell and Whittelsey detective camera, disguised as a waterproof leather satchel, capable of instantaneous or time exposures without being identified as a camera; fitted with Gundlach achromatic rectilinear lenses from Rochester, N.Y., and taking twelve plates in three available sizes.
- Reports on experiments at the Lynn Camera Club where six photographers used an instantaneous flash of gun-cotton and magnesium powder to photograph a group of thirty people, demonstrating that family groups and interiors can now be photographed in the evening as easily as in daylight.
- The eighth instalment of the serialized photography column covers techniques for intensifying gelatine dry-plate negatives using bichloride of mercury and sulphite of soda, followed by four gold-chloride toning formulae of varying compositions.
- Describes the process of making positive transparency pictures on gelatine glass plates using a ruby lantern and printing frame, with a developer formula based on oxalate of potash and protosulphate of iron producing black or brown tones.
- Detailed comparative review by 'E.C.S.' of leading camera models—Anthony's Novel ($20), Blair Reversible Camera ($35), Rochester Optical Ideal and Excelsior, the Eastman camera with its roll-holder attachment, and the Scovill Revolving Back—evaluating each on swing-back, ground-glass handling, and compactness, rating the Scovill the finest overall instrument.