The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-09-01
IN LOCOMOTIVES WAKE
BicycIist Anderson Rides a Mile i'll
LOB.
Expected TO Make it in One Minute
First Mile Better Than
Thirty Seconds.

ALTON Qu.), August &c. E. An
derson, the intrepid young Central ILL
nois wheelman, today reduced by near
ly a minute the bicycle speed record
of the world by riding close behind a
railroad locomotive in the vacuum Gre
ated, going the mile in 1903.
The officials of the st. Louis, Chicago
and ST. Paul Railway had the fastest
engine on the road assigned to set the
pace The trial took place near Old
enburg.
For a distance of two miles the road
had been planked up between the tracks
perfectly smooth. One mile was mar
ked off in the center of this stretch
with flags and torpedoes, the latter for
the timers and to indicate to Anderson
when to go ahead fast and when to
slow up.
The event was widely advertised by
the railroad company and a great crowd
of enthusiasts were taken today on
special trains to see the result. The
course was two miles south from Old
enburg station, giving half mile for
the start and finish. Anderson got off
nicely and for the first half mile kept
up, but then it became evident that he
could not maintain this rate of speed.
| The locomotive covered the ground in
something better than a siXtymile gait,
but the rider came short just sufficient
| Nv hi or.
to cover the mile in one minute. An
derson could have beaten the time a
| few seconds, but he mistook the sig
nails and slowed up a little too soon.
However, he demonstrated the fact
| that a bicycle can be put over the
ground a great deal faster than any one
has ever before thought of doing. A
! great cheer went up from the thrOng
when the result was announced. The
| first half mile was covered at the rate
of siXty-twO miles per hour.
! Anderson is an old ST. Louis rider
| known among wheelmen as Mary"
| Anderson, because of his innocence.
| That is he is old in experience, but
| is not more than twenty-five years of
age. He has won a large percentage
of prizes in local and State events in
|
believe that he is capable of great speed
and say that he has not entered any
event that has brought out his full
speed.
The great drawback that stands in
/ the way of making mile a minute in
| the open air on a bicycle is the wind
resistance. Could this be overcome it
would be possible to ride mile in thir-
! ty seconds, provided the rider could re-
volve the pedals rapidly enough. The
/ home trainers" now in use in bicycle
academies have shown that it is posi-
/ BILE for a rider to revolve his feet or
make the muscles of his leg act three
| times a second and cover a mile in
| from forty TO fifty seconds. The dis
lance is accurately measured on the
home trainer and it is beyond dispute
that where a rider is putting forth his
! best effort in a dead calm on a home
trainer he can revolve the rollers so
/ as to register mile in fifteen seconds
| less than a minute.
! Here is where Anderson took his ar
J gument. An engine or train of cars
travelling from forty to sixty miles an
1 hour leaves a wake of air for a dis
lance of ten to fifteen feet. Many will
understand this better if they ever
threw an object from the rear platform
of train and noticed its fall. 1t trav-
/ eled toward the train for a short dis
lance and was then struck with the
/ inrushing currents of air and carried
some distance. Anderson said, before
/ the trial, that he would not need the