The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-10
cANARY's ~AERIAL DAZZLE"
Pioneer of Bicycle Trick Riders Talks
of Els I.atast Sensational Feat.

New York, Dec. 10.-Dan Canary, who
performs at Madison Square Garden
the hair-raising feat of his aerial daz
Zle," as it is called, is the pioneer of
trick riders in this country. Twenty
years ago he was noted as a fancy rider
of the old high wheel He was out of
trick riding for years and in mercantile
lines until November, 1901, when he
started to show again in the "cyclc
whirl' a plain bowl standing on
stage. Canary, in a talk with a re-
scription of shOw he conceived his pres
ent feat and of the Constitutional de-
tails of his apparatus. He said:
I soon saw that the cycle whirl of
itself would not last as an attraction.
There was no introduction and no ell
max to the act. Little by little worked
out the present act 1t is a continuous
ride. with rousing finish.
THE tower on which the bowl is built
is made of angle iron and is just 40 feet
in height. The bowl on top is made of
wooden Stats an inch and a half wide
and an inch and half apart so that
spectators can see the inside. The bowl
is six feet tall and the inside slopes at
an angle of so degrees. 1t is % feet
across the top and II feet across the bot
tom. The spiral is two feet wide and
$50 feet long. The stairway leading
down from the top OF the bowl is "a feet
long. The steps have a 10-inch tread,
a rise of five inches and are feet 10
inches wide. The platform at the top
of the stairway is 3 feet inches wide
and feet long. There is no bottom to
the bowl, but there is a ledge two feet
wide running around the lower edge Oh
the inside
THE hardest parts of my act the pub
lie does not see with sufficient pIainneSS
to appreciate They are when 1 go into
and come out of the bowl The last part
of the spiral where go in has grade
OF 20 per cent. and when l get to the
top have to turn in an 11-foot circle
ggn Mrs m
unicycle than on bicycle With the
latter you have two points of contact
and as you are turning all the time
your front wheel is constantly in dan
ger of going over the outer edge and
your rear wheel over the inner edge. 1t
is delicate steering. Sometimes one of
my wheels slips over. Then I have to
make hurryup dismount, catch my
wheel and ride back to the bottom. for
I always make a continuous ride. Co
ing into the bowl my front wheel is
turned almost at right angles. I get go
ing on the slope after two turns.
Coming out, l am almost a right
angles with the inner surface of the
bowl when I reach its upper edge, and
it is the hardest part Of the whole stunt
to get out and catch my perpendicular
it. My wheel dropped to the floor, but
caught with my hands on the edge of
the platform. 1 dangled there till they
got n fire ladder and took me down.
mo, there is nothing special about
my wheel. except that it has a short
wheel base and extra heavy forks and
crown. I built it myself It WEIGHS
only &c pounds. 1t is geared to SO. You
see I needed a low gear to climb the
| spiral and high one to make speed in
side the wheel. so I had to compromise
I do more Aands-off and general trick
riding inside the wheel than any man
ever did. Oh, I suppose I'll break my
neck some day. That would be the
prODer way for me to 90 after monkey
ing more than twenty years with tine
game"