The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-07-01
That Minute Bike.

making a trial of his machine on the
track Of the new Charles River Park
in Cambridge. He had made an indie
pendent trial Of his machine, accom-
pIishing a mile in POI Is, and at the
time of his death was making another
trial against Nat Butler, the noted
professional. He had completed
three-quarters Of the mile, giving But
Ter, who is one Of the speediest men
in the country, all that he wanted to
do and was coming down the turn on
the last lap, when suddenly it was
seer that he was waveriDg in his seat,
and an instant later he plunged for
ward on his face. The tremendous
speed at which he was going carried
man and machine over each other. the
bicycle coming down on top Of Roper,
who did not move after he struck the
ground.
The men at the training quarters,
who had witnessed the accident, rushed
down the track toward him. He had
died so suddenly hat he had not had
time to shut off the power, and the
wheels of the machine were flying
around at a fearful rate, tearing up
the track, while the Goals had fallen
out of the door Of the fire box, which
had coma on the under side in the
fall, so that it looked as if both man
and machine were on fire. The ma
chine was lifted from him, but the
men who did it were u~nacquainted
with its workings, and were unable to
shut off the power. As soon asst was
set up with the wheels on the track it
was all that they could do to hold it
and it was some minutes before they
could find the throttle, shut off the
steam and open the safety valve to
prevent the danger of an explosion.
As o o as the machine was quiet
Roper was picked up and it was seen
that tLo man was dead. A physician
was summoned, and pronounced that
he had died from heart disease.
There is no question that he was dead
before he struck the ground, as there
was no injury upon him which would
have been sufficient to have caused
his death. 1t is probable that the
tremendous speed at which he was 60
ing and the excitement of his success
were the cause of the attack. He
was a mechanical engineer, 73 years
old, living at 299 Eustis street, Rox-
bury.
The affair is a peculiarly sad one, as
the trial in which he met his death
vas the consummation Of an idea
which had cost him years of study and
hard labor. The machine on which
he was riding had been tried and al
tered as defects were found, over and
over again, and he had just succeeded
in getting it to suit himself. AS far
as can be learned, it was a success in
every way, IS it raj worked up to a
great speed this morning without
showing any of the straining or twist.
ing, which has always been the
trouble with bicycles operated in any
other manner than by foot power. The
mile which he did in 2:01 is repre-.
sents only a fraction of the speed
which could be attained by the ma.
chine, as he was unable to let it outa At
anywhere near its full power, and on
the turns shut off the power entirely
and coasted around until he came into
the straight again. It is the opinion
of many good judges Of pace who
watched the trial this morning that in
the straight, where he was able to
speed up pretty we'll, he was going at
q speed of nearly a mile a minute,
and that he could have attained quite
that on a straight away course.
There was no one at the track this
morning who was familiar enough with
the machine to give a detailed descrip'
tion of it, but it is apparently Of
about three or four horse power. The
frebox, boiler and water tank are all
contained in an oak box about three
feet high, two feet long, and ten OF
twelve inches wide, placed inside the
frame of an old style Columbia bicy.
Gle, with the bottom about eight
inches from the ground and the top q
little above the top of the frame, the
whole machine weighing in the neigh
borhood of 200 to $50 pounds. The
application of power is on the right
side of the machine and is much the
same as hat in use on marine engines.
except that the piston works in abori'
zoptal direction instead ST vertically
as is the case with most marine en-
gines and that the end of the crank:
instead of running in a bearing is free.
with the eccentric rod applying to the
free end, the other end, of course, be-
ing fixed to the rear wheel.
1t might be thought that CHS would
give a good deal of twist if the power
were applied very hard, but this ap'
parently is not so, for in spite of the
rough handling which the machine had
this morning all this part Of it was in
perfect condition, although on the
other side, where it had fallen, it was
a good deal smashed up. Both the
piston rod and the eccentric rod run
through several guides, which were at
cached to the lower side Of, the frame
Of the bicycle, so that the whole is
firm and compact. The throttle is or
che outside of the machine, just above
che cylinder, so that if the cord con
Meeting with the handle bar, by which
it is usually operated, fails to work, il
can be shut off by direct application
The machine is a coal burner, and has
Il funnel, projecting backward almost
on straight line, SO that the smoke is
thrown out behind the rider. The
running of the machine works an auto
matte pump, which is provided with .
cutoff, which operates when the boil
er is full, 1t has also a draught reg
ulator by which the fire can be blown
up to almost any height. The ma
chine usually carries 40 pounds Of
steam, but the pressure could be run
up to 160.--Boston Evening Tran
script.
Last summer one of our grand child
No, ,,e c;ok with . cavera hnwal trnu.