33: 



* KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[Nov. 30, 1883. 



TRICYCLES IN 1883. 

 Br John Browning, 



Chairman of the London Tricycle Club. 



PEOTECTINCx MACHINES FROM WEATHER, MENDING 

 TYRES, AND RIDING IN WINTER. 



THOSE tricyclists who do not ride during the winter' 

 should cover all the bright parts of their machines, 

 whether plain steel or nickelised, with a good coating of 

 vaseline, which can be applied best with a small hog-hair 

 brush. This will be found a complete protection against 

 any amount of damp, or even wet. No other material will 

 hear comparison with it as a rust preventive. 



Those who do ride occasionally should apply a small 

 quantity of vaseline very thinly with a piece of rag. This will 

 scarcely be seen, but it will serve a double purpose — it will 

 protect the bright parts and prevent mud from adhering 

 strongly, and tlaus facilitate their being cleaned. In my 

 own case, I apply it to the painted parts of the machine 

 and also to the leather satchels and straps, as it keeps them 

 flexible and prevents them from cracking or becoming 

 mildewed. 



1 must here express my regret at the number of tri- 

 cyclists who ride only about six months in the year. 

 Bicyclists are almost compelled to give up riding during 

 the winter months, as they cannot steer their machines, 

 which are always in a condition of unstable equilibrium 

 when the wheels fall into ruts, or they come across loose 

 stones, which, in these months, are so plentiful ; nor can 

 they altogether avoid most dangerous falKs from their wheels 

 slipping sideways upon frozen snow or ice. 



But tricyclists can use their machines in any condition of 

 the roads. A low gearing, from .36 in. to 46 in., according 

 to the weight of the machine and the rider's strength, and 

 a good-sized tyre — that is, from |- to | of an inch diameter 

 — will carry him through any mud and over any stones ; 

 though I should advise new stones being walked, not 

 ridden, to save the rubber tyres. 



When, however, the roads are frozen hard — the most 

 difficult of all conditions for a bicyclist to ride — the tricycle 

 rider may enjoy a pastime superior even to skating. 



I shall never forget, one bright, frosty Christmas day, 

 how I spent the afternoon on wheels with my two earliest 

 and best friends in the wheel-world ; how we spun along 

 over the frozen ground, hardly feeling the exertion ; and now 

 we finished our run by gliding down hill for between three 

 and four miles with our feet up on the rests, at the rate 

 of something very little less than twenty miles an hour. 

 Nor shall I forget how the following year, with the same 

 dear friends, I rode the old year out and the new year in 

 on a clear moonlight night, through a landscape covered 

 with snow. Still, it must be admitted that there are some 

 days in our winter on which the most enthusiastic rider 

 would scarcely be tempted to ride. Such days may be 

 taken advantage of to mend the cuts in the rubber-tyres. 



Mr. Bennett has recently shown me an excellent way of 

 doing this. First, get some indiarubber solution, or cut up 

 a piece of old tyre into fragments about half an inch square, 

 and put them into a wide-mouth, glass-stoppered bottle, 

 then pour in just suflicient turpentine to cover them ; let 

 the bottle stand until they swell, and then put it into a 

 stow oven, where, in a short time, the turpentine and 

 rubber-tyre will run into a jelly. Now, with a small 

 piece of thin wood, in the form of a spatula, fill the ruts 

 in the tyres with this jelly. Wait until the turpentine has 

 evaporated, so that this cement becomes thick and strongly 

 glutinous. Then insert a small wedge of old rubber tyre 

 into the cut, and leave it until the cement is firmly set. 



When this is the case, the top of the wedge, which should 

 project above the tyre, should be trimmed ofT with a sharp 

 knife, kept wetted. 



One gentleman informs me that he has had his rubber 

 tyres badly gnawed by rats, and that he believes this arose 

 through the oil-cups of the wheels having been allowed to 

 hang downwards, so that the oil dripped on to the tyres, 

 and softened the rubljers ; and the rats were only tempted 

 to gnaw these for the sake of the oil which had soaked into 

 them. 



In any case it would be well in leaving a machine to 

 take care that the oil-cups are carefully turned upwards, 

 as oil alone will completely destroy rubber by reducing it 

 to a jelly. 



At the urgent request of several correspondents, I shall 

 shortly write an article, or articles, on " How to Choose a 

 Tricycle." 



A MARINE MONSTER. 



By Richard A. Proctor. 



THE discovery of a strange sea creature near St. Elmo, 

 illustrates the truth of what I had remarked a few 

 days earlier as to the smallness of our knowledge of the 

 denizens of the mighty deep. The case is interesting not 

 only in its bearing on the accounts of sea monsters of 

 species as yet unknown, but also because it seems as though 

 in the present case evidence of the existence of a tolerably 

 numerous race of creatures had been obtained. To begin 

 with, the account is not characterised by any evidence of 

 an attempt to excite wonder by untruths. The animal 

 seen, though unlike any known, would not be in itself very 

 marvellous. Omitting details of no importance, the account 

 runs thus : — While the boats of Capt. Seymour's barque, 

 I/ope On, were on the watch for whales off the Pearl 

 Islands (between forty and fifty miles from Panama) the 

 water broke a short distance away, and Capt. Seymour 

 made ready for a whale. But a head like that of a horse 

 rose from the water and then dived. The creature 

 was seen by all the boat's crew. Capt. Seymour de- 

 scribes the animal as almost twenty feet in length, 

 with a handsome horse-like head, with two unicorn-shaped 

 horns protruding from it The creature had four legs or 

 double-jointed fins, a brownish hide, profusely speckled 

 with large black spots, and a tail which appeared to be 

 divided into parts. The creature was seen on two different 

 days, and if whales had not been about at the time, an 

 effort would have been made to catch it. Captain Seymour 

 and his officers agree in considering that tlje creature is 

 peculiar to the locality, and that it could easily be killed 

 with lances and guns. It is important to notice that officers 

 of the Pacific Mail Company state they have seen the 

 animal on several occasions, but not so closely as did the 

 officers and men of the I/ope On. 



The neare.st account of any strange animal akin to that 

 seen by Captain Seymour and his men, is the account of a 

 marine creature, supposed to be a .sea serpent, seen in 1817 

 near Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Eleven witnesses of good 

 reputation gave on oath before magistrates — one of whom 

 had himself seen what they had — a descri|)tion of a creature 

 like a serpent, dark brown in colour (some said mottled), 

 with white under the head and neck. The head of this 

 creature was as large as a horse's, but shaped like a ser- 

 pent's ; and the animal was estimated as exceeding 50 ft. 

 in length. Colonel Perkins noticed an appearance in the 

 front of the head like a single horn ; but other observers 

 thought this was the monster's tongue. 



