638 



CYCLING 



in so far as they give power to any local authority 

 to make bylaws for regulating the use of bicycles, 

 tricycles, velocipedes, and other similar machines, 

 are hereby repealed ; and bicycles, tricycles, velo- 

 cipedes, and other similar machines are hereby 

 declared to be carriages within the meaning of the 

 Highway Acts ; and the following additional 

 regulations shall be observed by any person or 

 persons riding or being upon such carriage: (a) 

 During the period between one hour after sunset 

 and one hour before sunrise, every person riding or 

 being upon such carriage, shall carry attached to 

 the carriage, a lamp, which shall be so constructed 

 and placed as to exhibit a light in the direction in 

 which he is proceeding, and so lighted and kept 

 lighted, as to afford adequate means of signalling 

 the approach or position of the carriage. ( b ) Upon 

 overtaking any cart or carriage, or any horse, mule, 

 or other beast of burden, or any foot-passenger, 

 being on or proceeding along the carriage-way, 

 every such person shall, within a reasonable dis- 

 tance from and before passing such cart or carriage, 

 horse, mule, or other beast of burden, or such foot- 

 passenger, by sounding a bell or whistle, or other- 

 wise, give audible and sufficient warning of the 

 approach of the carnage. (2) Any person sum- 

 marily convicted of offending against the regula- 

 tions made by this section, shall, for each and for 

 every such offence, forfeit and pay any sum not 

 exceeding forty shillings. 



Cycle-racing, by both amateurs and professionals, 

 has developed into a fine art, and bids fair to 

 rival in popularity all but horseracing. Cinder- 

 paths specially constructed for the purpose exist 

 in nearly all the more important centres, and 

 amateur race meetings are of frequent occurrence 

 during the summer season ; but Leicester, Wolver- 

 hampton, North Shields, and Coventry are the 



E laces chiefly noted for contests among the pro- 

 jssional fraternity. 



The practice of camping out under canvas 

 is one which seems to have commended itself 

 to cyclists in a marked degree. The habit 

 originated at the North of England Cyclists' 

 Meet, held annually at Harrogate ; and it has 

 been perpetuated not only by Northerners, but by 

 Southerners as well, the latter usually selecting 

 Mid-Surrey as their camping ground. 



Apart from the marvellous modern records to 

 which previous reference has been made, some 

 notable distances were covered even upon the 

 earlier and more imperfect forms of machines. 

 Among them should be mentioned the one from 

 London to Bath by David Stanton, who was 

 credited with covering the 106 miles in 8 hours 

 28 minutes on the 17th August 1874, as also the 

 year's record of Mr E. Tegetmier of the Belsize 

 Bicycle Club, London, who claimed to have ridden 

 over 10,000 miles in a single season. 



The development of the pastime of bicycling in 

 all classes of the community, including ladies, was 

 especially marked in 1895-96 ; and this led to a 

 rapid increase in the number of companies for 

 manufacturing bicycles, or parts of them. In 1896 

 alone companies with a capital of 11,000,000 

 were floated in Britain one of them, the Dunlop 

 Pneumatic Tyre Company, with a capital of 

 5,000,000. The Americans, though comparatively 

 late in entering the field, had by 1897 increased 

 their export of bicycles to a value of about 

 1,000,000 a year. Chainless driving gear and Eng- 

 lish and American roller gear were being cautiously 

 introduced ; bamboo spokes and aluminium ma- 

 chines were no longer novelties ; machines con- 

 structed on the cantilever principle were in use, 

 and in America the merits of condensed and 

 hardened paper for bicycle tube frames were com- 

 mended. As against many of the chainless cycles, 



it is alleged that by the bevelled cog-wheels friction 

 is increased, while the one wheel is spread or 

 pushed away from the other. One kind of chain- 

 less machine is worked by means of roller-bearing 

 pegs, which engage each other at right angles ; 

 another by means of a self-coiling and self-uncoiling 

 band from the driving sheave to the driven sheave 

 (both smooth like belt sheaves), the ends of the 

 band being screwed to the sheaves. The long- 

 promised electric tricycle has not yet appeared, the 

 difficulty being the inevitable weight involved in 

 carrying a series of accumulators (but see TRAC- 

 TION-ENGINES). 



The crypto-dynamic gear manufactured by the 

 Crypto Cycle Company (serviceable on rough roads 

 and on steep gradients) marvellously lightened the 

 labour of cycling in the case of elderly persons and 

 invalids, but as a rule a muscular rider is content 

 with one speed affixed to a light machine, upon 

 which he is able to make even better progress than 

 upon the necessarily heavy crypto-gearcd article. 

 A simple method of ascertaining how a machine is 

 gearea is to multiply the diameter of the driving- 

 wheels by the number of teeth in the lower cog- 

 wheel, and then divide by the number of teeth in 

 the cog upon the main axle e.g. a 40-inch wheel 

 has twenty teeth upon its lower cog-wheel, and 

 fifteen upon the upper ; this gives a gearing of 53J 

 inches. 



' Trick riding ' is an art which American riders 

 assiduously practise, and in which they naturally 

 excel ; so much so, that many ' professors ' thereof 

 have from time to time visited Great Britain and 

 continental Europe to exhibit their prowess to 

 the multitude. Trick riding aside, however, it 

 is generally conceded that the typical English- 

 man makes the most enthusiastic cyclist ; partly 

 because the bicycle was first systematically made 

 and ridden here, and partly because he possesses 

 an inbred love of athletics. Coventry, Birming- 

 ham, Nottingham, Wolverhampton, London, and 

 to a smaller extent other important places, are 

 interested in the manufacture of machines, while 

 the first named has happily been enabled to sub- 

 stitute for the fast-decaying or depressed industries 

 of ribbon-weaving and watchmaking, for which 

 she was long celebrated, the designing and manu- 

 facturing of cycles, which find employment for 

 thousands of hands. The Pneumatic Tyre Com- 

 pany is said to be able to turn out about 12,000 

 tyres per week. 



The types of machines in current use are the ordi- 

 nary bicycle, the dwarf rear-driven safety bicycle or 

 some modification thereof, the front-steered tricycle, 

 the carrier or tradesman's tricycle, tandem bicycles, 

 both ordinary and dwarf, tandem front-steered 

 bicycles, and invalid pedo- or manu-motive cycles ; 

 but numerous machines coming within none of 

 these categories are met with from time to time. 

 The fashion in this respect has necessarily changed 

 with great rapidity, seeing that it is only within the 

 last few years that really skilled and competent 

 engineers and mechanics have turned their atten- 

 tion to the perfecting of the cycle. The numerous 

 improvements, together with the impracticable 

 ideas of the ever-present visionary, are generally 

 shown annually at the Stanley exhibition, a fixture 

 which takes its name from the London club bearing 

 this title. 



Among recent developments in connection with 

 the cycle have been its adoption by some of the 

 leading London dailies to convey special editions to 

 the various railway termini, and the use of the 

 cycle by the postal authorities ; while pregnant 

 with much greater import to all concerned is the 

 official adoption of the two-wheeled machine by the 

 military authorities. With this object in view, 

 the various volunteer corps at present in existence 



