254 HANDBOOK OF THE TURF. 



the Spirit of the Times, referring to the rules of the New York 

 Trotting Club and the comparative tests of speed and weight 

 in harness and imder saddle, says : " The same weight has to 

 be carried b}^ the driver, exclusive of the weights of his sulky 

 or match-cart, as by the same jockey in the saddle. These 

 match-carts are of the neatest construction, and weigh gen- 

 erally ninety pounds, though they often weigh twenty pounds 

 less, and there are one or two which weigh but fifty-three 

 pounds!" From that date to 1892, a period of fifty-one years, 

 there was little or no change in the general style of the track 

 sulky. The main difference was in the use of better materials, 

 a higher artistic finish and less weight. Yet fifty-three pounds 

 was the exact weight of a Pray standard sulky, with wheels 

 four feet seven inches high, weighed and measured by the 

 author in September, 1893. But at the commencement of the 

 season of 1892, a complete revolution in trotting was inaugu- 

 rated by the use of the pneumatic wheel, the first experiments 

 with which were made with a pair of bicycle wheels attached 

 to an ordinary sulky. It was at the Detroit, Mich., meeting 

 in July 1892, however, at which the new style sulky was first 

 publicly recognized. The race won by Honest George took 

 place there on July, 20 and 21, of that year, and this was the 

 first race in which the pneumatic sulky was ever used at a 

 prominent meeting in this country. Immediately manufac- 

 turer's commenced to adapt their sulkies to the new require- 

 ments, and by the beginning of the season of 1893, pneumatic 

 sulkies were in use upon all the leading tracks of the country. 

 Builders not only made entirely new patterns but devised 

 methods for changing over the high wheel to the bike wheel 

 sulky, making stays of different kinds to fit the new wheel to 

 the old axle. A great number of experiments took place 

 before the pneumatic wheel was fully adjusted to its new uses, 

 but these finally proved successful and in cases of entirely new 

 or changed-over sulkys they have given the utmost satisfaction 

 to owners, trainers and drivers. The high wheel sulky, like 

 the stage coach, is a thing of history only. The two great 

 advantages of the new sulky are the pneumatic tire and ball 

 bearings. The height of the wheels is from tM^enty-six to 

 twenty-eight inches. They are made of both wood and steel 

 the tire being attached to the rim of the wheel. There are 

 from twenty to twenty-four ball bearings in each wheel, (ten 

 or twelve in each end of the hub), being held in the boxes by 

 means of a cone-case or recess into which, they are fitted. These 

 bearings are of different sizes, the usual diameter being one- 

 fourth or five-sixteenths of an inch. The weight of the pneu- 



