The Wheel: Journal of Bicycling, Vol 13, No 22
Articles in this issue
- A bill to be presented to the New Jersey Legislature would grant bicycles, tricycles, and similar vehicles the same road rights as pleasure vehicles, modeled on the recently passed New York law; readers are urged to obtain petition forms from Dr. J. H. Cooley, Plainfield, N.J.
- The Kings County Wheelmen formally dedicated their new Brooklyn club house Tuesday evening before 300 to 400 wheelmen from Brooklyn, New York, and New Jersey; the NY & NJ Team Road Racing Association presented the drill team's cup to Captain Bridgman, and Police Commissioner Bell and Fish Commissioner Blackford were among the speakers.
- The Pennsylvania Bicycle Club held a formal reception on Washington's Birthday at their new rooms at 3940 Girard Avenue, Philadelphia, with Captain W. D. Suplee, C. A. Roberts, F. W. Kohler, F. H. Lippincott, and George Laing receiving guests amid profuse decorations.
- The Binghamton Wheel Club held its first annual meeting on February 17, electing A. H. Saunders president; the six-month-old club has raised over $700 to build a cinder path to Union, nine miles from Binghamton.
- The Passaic County Wheeling and Athletic Association was formally organized with J. T. Granger as president and 100 members; trustees are authorized to secure a permanent club house, with the old Catholic church estimated at $1,500 to $3,500 to convert.
- A special correspondent reports on 1888 Stanley Show curiosities: the Facile stand's piano-wire-spoked wheel (likened to a 'circular harp'), the Whippet company's cheap wooden-framed military bicycle, Pope Manufacturing's Columbia display, and Thomas Stevens's round-the-world machine exhibited at the Outing stand.
- The Rev. J. Thomas Jones, LL.D., vicar of Curdworth, has invented a rotary steam engine to propel a tricycle, using a piston on spiral springs running within concentric cylinders; details reprinted from the Birmingham Daily Mail, January 19, 1888.
- Several anti-vibration devices at the Stanley Show are reviewed: the Golden-Era safety's frame on spiral springs, the British Star safety's flat spiral spring by Guest & Barrow, the Elland safety's coil spring on the fork, and the Ivel cycles' hinged frame with double-cone spiral spring.
- Messrs. Lamplugh and Brown have patented a triple shackle spring saddle that achieves complete metallic isolation from the machine frame via rubber buffer shackles, giving elasticity on all sides; Messrs. W. B. Everett & Co. of Boston are the sole U.S. agents.
- C. H. Ross visited New York to take orders for his detachable luggage carrier, which fastens at the head of the wheel, releases with one turn of a screw, and can swing right-angles during coasting; priced at $1 from C. H. Ross & Co., 46 Columbia Street, Albany, N.Y.
- Miscellaneous cycling notes including the new Kirkpatrick saddle for 1888, the Volunteer Columbia roadster at $100 with ball bearings to both wheels, a Nautilus Boat Club two-mile handicap at the Palace Rink Brooklyn won by E. I. Halstead of the Harlem Wheelmen, and a description of the Kings County Wheelmen's luxuriously furnished new club house.
- Continuing the weekly gossip column: scores from the six-day race at the Elite Rink Philadelphia (Dingley leading with 513 miles), Wallace Ross winning a London road scullers' cycling match with 330 miles, Rowe's series of races against Howell arranged for spring, and a denial of rumors that H. B. Smith Machine Co. would stop making Star bicycles.
- Upcoming events calendar: Six Days' Race at the Elite Rink Philadelphia (Feb. 20–25), Universal Club's Reception Brooklyn (Feb. 27), L.A.W. Board Meet in New York (Mar. 5), Century Wheelmen's Athletic Meeting (Mar. 6), and Cambridge Cycle Club's Summer Tour (Aug. 12).
- The ninth annual meeting of the Philadelphia Bicycle Club on February 13 elected George E. Bartol president; Mrs. H. R. Lewis won the Captain's cup for greatest mileage at 3,043.5 miles (including 2,200 ridden in Europe) and received a special medal as the first woman to win the award.
- About 1,000 spectators attended a tournament at the Elite Rink, Philadelphia, February 16, under the Philadelphia Bicycle Club and Century Wheelmen; Frank E. Dingley of Minneapolis won the five-mile professional in 16m. 10s. over S. P. Hollingsworth, and Samuel G. Whittaker won the two-mile professional in 6m. 6 4/5s.
- A humorous piece reprinted from Puck in which Satan assigns a private sulphur pit to a 'conversational punster' sent to hell alongside murderers and an anarchist; presented as a jibe at the rival cycling journal Bassett's Scrap Book.
- A detailed feature on A. G. Spalding & Bros.' new Broadway cycling department under A. B. Barkman, covering the full Victor range (Light Roadster at $125, Junior, Safety at $135, Tricycle at $160) plus the Spalding-manufactured Youth's Premier at $30–$60 by size; includes technical specifications, second-hand wheel prices, and an installment-plan offer.
- The 12th Regiment Athletic Club will hold amateur military athletic games at their armory on Sixty-second Street and Ninth Avenue, New York, Monday April 2, featuring a two-mile bicycle handicap among other events; entries close March 26 with C. J. Leach, gold medals to first-place finishers.
- An obituary signed 'L.B.G.' mourns R. H. Spear, a Minneapolis trick and fancy rider and instructor at S. F. Heath & Co. who held a Washington Rink lap record of 1/8 mile in 19 seconds; Spear died of consumption on February 5 at nearly 22 years of age.
- A letter signed 'Bi.' reflects on warm local feeling toward deposed L.A.W. Secretary-Editor Eugene M. Aaron and reports that the Louisiana Cycling Club is debating a spring race meet and installing a road register and signboard at Schadwell's, 7 miles down the Gentilly road.
- Karl Kron writes from Washington Square (February 18) of his return from eight weeks snowbound in Massachusetts and his plan to distribute 5,000 copies of a 132-page promotional pamphlet for his book 'Ten Thousand Miles on a Bicycle,' including the publisher's preface collecting newspaper notices and reviews.