The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-23
THE CHAINLESS SAFETY
FIRST OF THE NEW MODELS TO BE
PUT ON EXHIBITION.
1t Represents Half a Million Worth
of Experiments-Advan
Claimed for 1t.

Monday morning Lilly & Stalnaker, local
agents of the Pope Manufacturing Com
pany, of Hartford, Conn.,, will place on
exhibition a sample of the new Columbia
chainless bicycle. A great deal has been
said and written about this wheel When,
during the middle of the past season, the
price of Columbia wheels was reduced %
per cent, it was said that this was done
to get rid of all the stock as it was the in
tention Of the manufacturers to discontinue
the manufacture and sale of chain-geared
bicycles 1t was known that the Pope
Manufacturing Company had been for years
buying up all patents of chainless bicycle
gears which had the least promise of being
successful, and that experiments We're be-
ing made right along at the factory. But
the long waiting led TO the belief that the
experiments had been failures. and 1t oc-
casioned some surprise when it was an
nounced that the 1898 model Of the Column
bia would be chainless. The fact is, it is
now said, that the Pope Manufacturing
Company felt so secure in holding nearly
all the patents along this line that 1t was
in no hurry and waited until perfection
could be attained before putting the new
wheel on the market.
For two years the Pope Company has
built and tried, model after model, dozen
distinct variations comprising the list test
ed. All this was in addition to the work
and worry and waiting TO get beYel gears
cut accurately, and OF gathering the costly
equipment needed TO produce them IN GUAM
TUES. In all the land there was no proper
machinery Tor cutting sucn gears. Inc lnd-
chinsts, as a rule, SAID there could be none,
but they were wrong. Each member OF a
beVel gear is the fruStum OF cone with
teeth cut in its periphery. To have me-
chanically perfect gear was proved 10 be
possible, but the metal was first worked in
a soft or untempered safe. For use III a
biclcle it must be hardened Costly and
elaborate methods are now employed TO
make this tempering of the gears certain,
sure and speedy.
The following are some of the points of
superiority claimed for the new wheel over
all chain-geared BICYCLES
1t is much easier to keep clean.
Every motion is pOsitiVe-no back lash.
1t has no links or teeth to catch things"
1t Will go faster and further with less
effort
Its driving mechanism is always thor
It's motive parts are not affected by the
weather-by rain, sleet, mud or dust
Its beVel gears improve with uSe while a
chain deteriorateS from the first.
1t saves repair money, work and worry.
and increases the safety and delight of
cycling.
1t removes the one serious source of dam
ger that every bicycler realizes, and substi-
tutes confidence for dread
The weak part of a chain and sprocket
bicycle is the chain
The bevel gears of Columbia chainless
Will OuIldSt any OlneF important part Oh
the machine.
The chainless wheel lacks the dramatic
feature of a birth from one inventive brain.
1t was incubated rather than invented,
and the simple seemingly triumphant
mechanism is a grand collaboration of in
ventions and q composite of many chain
less predecessors that only saw the light
to tall.
The first suggestion in the mechanism is
it's resemblance to the homely principle of
the eggbeater Indeed, the housewife beats
nv of 81 mi
principle. cursory glance at a new wheel
flashing by would reveal nothing, for the
beveled gearing is incased in watch-tight,
dust-prOof casings and the wheel looks like
any other wheel.
The pedals turn a beveled cog, which, in
turn, acts on a rod which extends to the
axle of the rear wheel. This rod has at
on the axle of the pedal and the other fit
ting a similar beveled cog on the axle of
the rear wheel. The pedals therefore
transmit the power by the turning of the
rod in its casing between the gearing of
the pedals and the gearing of the rear axle.
There is nothing new in this principle,
which is that cogs turning on the bevel, or
power in more different directions than a
skipper can tack a ship. Neither is its APP
plicatiOn to the bicycle new, for there was
the League wheel of 1888, that failed made
in Hartford, and "L'Acatene," the wheel
of France on which Huret, the French
rider, covered 564 miles and 1910 yards in
twenty-four hours, and broke the record
based on a confidence of cutting this gear
ing in a specially made steel with abso-
lutte perfection of alignment.
The weight of the new wheel is but