The Wheelmen's Gazette, Vol 3, No 12
Articles in this issue
- Gormully & Jeffery announce that Bert Meyers of the Peoria Bicycle Club rode 289 miles in 24 hours on an ordinary American Light Champion on November 21st, the greatest distance ever ridden in that time by an American amateur, also citing John V. L. Pierson's four ascents of Eagle Rock on a Light Champion with 5.5-inch cranks.
- Gormully & Jeffery promote the Standard, Brooks Ideal, and Excelsior cyclometers for recording the coming year's mileage, closing out a few old-style Excelsiors at the bargain price of $5.00.
- Gormully and Jeffery suggest their Ideal juvenile bicycles and tricycles make ideal Christmas presents, promoting H. T. Hearsey as the central Indiana agent at 147 North Delaware Street, Indianapolis.
- Warwick Cycle Mfg. Co. of Springfield, Mass., advertises the Warwick Perfection Bicycle and the Warwick Perfection Safety as the wheels for 1889, a machine a lady can ride with ease and grace, and invites agents to send for terms, prices, and circulars describing the improvements.
- H. B. Smith Machine Co. of Smithville, N.J., advertises the Star bicycle's accepted world road records from 150 to 305 miles and safety records from 1 to 20 miles on the track, plus every hill-climbing contest and first premium won since 1881.
- The Overman Wheel Co. reports that of thirteen starters in the hill-heavy Sporting Life 100-mile road race in Philadelphia, only two finished — both riding Victors — and both broke the American amateur record that already belonged to the Victor.
- The King Wheel Co. of 51 Barclay Street, New York, promotes the King's lever drive as giving constant power with economy of effort, its treadles placed behind the hub to prevent headers, and liberal agent terms available.
- Darrow Bros. of Indianapolis advertise Volume III of the Wheelmen's Gazette, handsomely bound in cloth and stamped with gold for $1.50, or bundled with a year's subscription for $1.75, with a free title page and index available on request.
- J. K. Starley & Co. of Meteor Works, Coventry, England (late Starley & Sutton) advertises the New Light Rover safety as the first machine to cover over 21 miles in an hour, with American agents L. H. Johnson of Orange, N.J., Meacham Arms Co. of St. Louis, and R. D. Addis of Lincoln, Nebraska.
- A newspaper reporter, denied a vacation for twelve years, finally wins nine months' leave to tour England by tandem tricycle with his wife — but after their savings bank fails, they instead 'imagine' the trip at home, and he ghostwrites a cross-continent bicycle record-breaker's serialized adventures instead.
- With Charles H. Luscomb and Herbert W. Hayes out of contention, the Gazette backs George A. Jessup of Scranton, Pa. — a Civil War veteran, bank president, and four-term Scranton Bicycle Club president — as the League's next president.
- A state-by-state roundup of club runs, races, and results from November 15 to December 15, 1888 — including Bert Meyers' 289-mile Peoria run, the Sporting Life 100-mile race won by Frank Dampman in 7:20:17, John Bensinger's 102-mile Thanksgiving century on Long Island, and English tricycle records by G. P. Mills — followed by a calendar of coming events through February 1889.
- J. H. Shurman's 13-trip Eagle Rock Hill climb, timed by E. J. Desker, F. Brock, and F. P. Prial, beats Coningsby's record by 12 minutes 57 seconds — 3 hours 5 minutes for 13 round trips on a Springfield Roadster.
- A compiled list of U.S. bicycle, tricycle, and velocipede patents issued between November 6 and December 4, 1888, including Albert H. Overman's bicycle saddle and William E. Smith's bicycle assigned to the Smith National Cycle Manufacturing Co. of Colorado.
- A list of British cycle patents from late October through mid-November 1888, including John Kemp Starley and Arthur Edward Scrope Shrapnel's velocipede improvements, and Thomas, Frederick, and Edward Warwick of Birmingham's improvements to bicycle fork sides.
- Fred Coningsby of the Brooklyn Bicycle Club sets a new Eagle Rock Hill climbing record near Orange, N.J. — eight round trips without a dismount in 1 hour, 53 minutes, 47 seconds — before being forced to dismount on the ninth ascent.
- An extended guide argues that cycling is easier than walking and answers 'What will Mrs. Grundy say?', recommending the direct-steering tricycle for women, citing Mrs. Allen of Birmingham's 200 miles in 24 hours, and detailing ideal weight, gearing, dress-guards, and pedals for a lady's machine.
- Frank A. Elwell of Portland, Maine, circulates plans for a 25-rider cyclists' excursion through Ireland, England, France, Switzerland, and Germany starting in May, naming early sign-ups including H. S. Higgins, Rev. Chas. E. Fessenden, and Jas. E. Beal of Ann Arbor.
- A roundup of new books and magazines for the season, including Anna Katharine Green's 'Behind Closed Doors,' Ella Wheeler's 'Poems of Passion,' Gerald Stoney and R. J. McCredy's 'The Art and Pastime of Cycling,' Nims & Knight's 1889 calendars, and the newly bound Volume III of the Wheelmen's Gazette.
- A skeptical notice describes an English five-wheeled 'centercycle' seen near Horsham weighing 75 to 90 pounds, doubting any genuine cycler would ride the hired novelty.
- A patented ice-and-snow attachment by Herman H. Holtkamp of New Knoxville, Ohio, fits a clamped runner to the small wheel and cylindrical plates to the large wheel, letting a bicycle run on ice or packed snow and be removed quickly.
- George B. Thayer of Hartford, Conn., tells the Hartford Post that his European cycling tour through Scotland, England, the Rhine, and the Alps cost little more than staying home — under $2 a day in England and $1 a day through Belgium and Germany.
- Omaha's new $30,000 Coliseum will house a 20-foot, ten-laps-to-the-mile bicycle track, a swimming bath, and Turkish baths, with John S. Prince running the bicycle school and Marve Beardsley the riding school ahead of a planned six-day professional race.
- At Hartford, Conn., the Overman Wheel Company reports a prosperous year and raises its capital stock from $100,000 to $125,000, electing A. H. Overman president and E. C. Hodges vice president.
- A column of short items — A. Kennedy Childe's appointment as agency superintendent for the Warwick Cycle Manufacturing Co., John Mason's 277-mile 24-hour ride, Miss Maggie Kirkwood's 1,800 cyclometer-verified miles for the year, and the new Rucker tandem ridden by Will and John Dotter of Philadelphia's Pennsylvania Club.
- Tightrope performer Blondin recalls having a rope-grooved bicycle built for his act, mounting it for the first time before a large audience with no rehearsal, and performing all his tricks, including a chair somersault, without practice.
- A correspondent asks the British Medical Journal whether suburban doctors should use bicycles or tricycles instead of a horse and carriage to save money; the editor replies that several practices already do so successfully and sees no objection.
- A tall tale follows 'Smithkins,' a country boarder on an old Expert ordinary, who claims a giant hoop-snake chased his bicycle down a moonlit hill near Bear Swamp before he ran it down and shot it, then mounts its six-foot skin on his barn wall as a trophy.
- Thomas Stevens recalls riding his bicycle into a Shah's army review at Teheran's military maidan, where ten thousand Persian soldiers broke ranks in delighted confusion shouting 'Asp-i-ahen Sahib!' (Horse-of-iron Master), and the Naib-i-Sultan jokes about mounting his Cossacks on bicycles.
- The Peoria, Illinois dealer advertises second-hand bicycles and tricycles bought, sold, and exchanged, plus new Victor, Springfield Roadster, New Rapid, American Champion, and Star machines on easy payments at 8 percent interest, with juvenile wheels from $6.40.
- Springfield Bicycle Mfg. Co. prints a series of enthusiastic customer letters from Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, Illinois, and Wisconsin, each praising the Roadster's reliability, ease of running, and all-round road performance.
- The Referee Publishing Co. of Chicago advertises the 64-page Referee Annual, ready December 15 for 10 cents, with 50 humorous sketches, 250 pictures of celebrities, tables of latest records, and a review of American cycling since 1860.
- S. Mills of Indianapolis advertises a silver-plated combination dial lock as unpickable and unique to each buyer, with lost combinations recoverable by mail from the manufacturer using the lock's registered number.
- Springfield Bicycle Mfg. Co. touts hill-climbing records on the Springfield Roadster: J. Harry Shurman's 24 ascents of Eagle Rock Hill, Samuel B. Sterling's 11 ascents of Corey Hill in Boston at age 45, and 4 ascents of Stickney Hill in Lynn, Mass., plus J. Fred Midgley's fastest competition quarter- and half-mile.
- The Pope Mfg. Co. advertises an improved cementing process for 1889 Columbia tires, claiming firmer adhesion to the felloe and a reduced rate of loosening complaints.