Omaha daily bee., 1897-02-28
ONE OF THE NEW BICYCLE GIRLS.

been as celebrated as the pneumatic tire ID
today. In 1889 the first English bicycles
having pneumatic tires on were brought 70
this country. The balloon tires as they
were then termed, were pronounced hideous:,
The Dunlop company sold ite American
rights to A. Featherstone & Co., chicago,
and American manufacturers turned their.
thoughts to producing tires similar In effect.
The result was an amount of costly litigation
with the Dunlop people, but from II all
resulted the making of an improved pneu>
matte tire.
In the fall of 1891, at the Stanley show in
England, the Humber company exhibited a
bicycle made with straight tubes. In 1882.
bicycle of this pattern was exhibited az
the Philadelphia Cycle show, and 1t created
quite a sensation. Many of the English
and American makers up to this time had
conceived the most fantastic shapes In bl:
cycle frames that one could well Imagine:
Today all the makers of the world have
| settled down to the type Of the straight
| tube diamond frame shown in 1891. having,
of course the notifications and details. such
as building them lighter and with larger
diameter of tubing as well as In assorted
| heights Of frames.
! the makers were tumbling over each other
| in their efforts to produce long wheel Bases,
Since that time a reaction has come ana
wheel bases now run from forty-two and one
| half to forty-five inches.
! The elliptical sprocket In 1891 and lS92
| was a great topic Of discussion among the
| mechanics in the trade. 1t was finally
adopted by the Pope Manufacturing company
and it abandoned it after one years use.
The early chain adjustments were usually
made at the crank hanger bracket, an ex-
| pensive and clumsy method At present all
the makers use the rear fork chain adjust
| ment. Some of the early catalogues describe
| their handle bars as being thrty-six inches
in length. Now the average bar is from
| eighteen to twenty inches I'm length. Some
of the early safeties had treads varying from
| eight to ten inches. Today the average tread
is five inches or perhaps little less
REDUCTION OF WEIGHT.
| AS regards weight, the first safeties built
| in this country averaged about sixty pounds!
By a gradual process OF reduction they aver-
age today about twenty-five pounds Every
| maker. in this country uses wood rims To-Day.
| In 1891 but one or two makers had the
| temerity to use them.
One OF the great steps in promoting the
! popularity OF the bicycle was the Invention
| by Owens of Washington OF the lady's BIZ
| cycle in 1878. Heretofore the bicycle had
been REGARDED by the female portion of the
| community as essentially selfish sport for
men and no invention in this or any other
| country has done mucn for cycling az
the invention of the drop-frame cycle ior
| women.
| Repeated efforts have been made to obtain
| something to supersede the chain as the
medium for transferring the power. num-
Der of attempts have been made In this
country to introduce wheels having beveled
gears to transmit the power The objections
to them we're their weight, their width OF
tread and their liability to get out OF order:
The chain, when the frame springs out Of
line, readily adapts itself to the new condi-
tlons, but a wheel with the beveled tooth
gear must needs be in line. However, ths
makers of chalnless safeties would propapiy
have succeeded had 1t not been for the re-
duction in the weight demanded for the
bicycle OF today. 1t was found to be Inns
practicable to build a light frame and safely
carry the rigid and heavy gear.