WORKMANSHIP IN CYCLES—ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MAKERS.
Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to practically test the
durability and general excellence of a wheel before purchasing.
The buyer therefore has to depend upon his skill in judging of
workmanship. It is impossible to give many set rules that would be of
much assistance to a prospective buyer, but of one thing he can be
reasonably certain,—if he finds a single poorly made or undeniably
botched part, it is a valid cause for a rigid examination into all
others. A first-class manufacturer is not liable to botch a single
part, but if you find that he has done so, it is well to be very
cautious in patronizing him. It is generally a safe plan to examine
a machine that has been in use in order to judge of the durability
of a maker’s work, though durability will generally accompany good
workmanship and finish when new. A cheap quality of nickel-plating
often gives the appearance of a good job, but it will peel and rust;
and to prevent this good platers put on a coat of copper under the
nickel as a base upon which to plate. It is difficult to determine
in a new machine the amount of the nickel deposit, or whether it is
upon a copper base; hence it will be seen that the maker’s work in the
past is the only standard from which such matters can be judged. With
enamel and paint it is much more easy to determine the quality, though
a glossy surface is not necessarily a true gauge of good work. It is
the finish of the under surfaces that takes the labor. A good job of
painting is to my mind superior to enamel or japan, but it is attended
with considerable labor. In olden times, when paint was more common, a
maker could be identified by the finish and striping of his machines;
there was such a difference in the quality of the work. Now, however,
since the dead-black japan rules the day, it is more difficult to judge
between makers by the outward finish of their wares. There cannot be
much difference in the amount of labor put upon the work by the various
manufacturers, for the reason that a certain process has to be gone
through before it can be done at all. _À propos_ of striping, it may be
considered gaudy, but an artistic job sets off a machine as compared
with a plain black now in vogue.
The quality of rubber in the tire of a bicycle affords a splendid field
for an expert; only those who have to use rubber in other connections
realize the great differences in its quality. Rubber can be made
absolutely useless by adulteration; and when we see how easily some
tires cut, we cannot doubt that makers often sacrifice quality for
the sake of price. Buyers should notice carefully the old tires of
different makers, and see how they have stood the test.
In the matter of quality of tubing of which machines are made there
is little difficulty at present, as nearly all of the firms buy from
one or the other of two great English factories, but when the industry
of weldless tube-making becomes more disseminated, and small concerns
with inadequate facilities enter the field, we can expect more trouble.
About the brazing of the tubes it is utterly impossible to tell
anything except from the way it stands.
The screws and nuts about a machine should be provided with sharp,
deep threads, and work easily though not loosely. A maker can
almost always be judged by the kind of screws he cuts. The nuts and
screw-heads should be case-hardened and be neat and square on the
corners, and not rounded by the nickel polisher. In all cases where it
is practicable some device for preventing the nuts from coming loose,
or being entirely lost, is a great boon; this point will have to be
looked after now since complicated machines are becoming more popular.
The device generally used on the outer end of pedals should become more
common, especially on tricycles, tandems, and chain Safeties, where
there are so many parts. A good practical jam-nut has never yet been
invented, and the cycle-builders are therefore not to blame for not
having provided some means against loose nuts generally.
In the matter of saddle and other springs, we are somewhat at a loss
for a guide; there is not so much carelessness in quality of the steel
used as in the tempering, and in this the buyer has again to rely on
reputation and observance of other machines of the same make. The
quality of leather often used in saddles is simply an insult to the
judgment of the fraternity, and if we will go on in blindly taking any
and everything that is offered, the imposition will continue. If buyers
scrutinize closely, the makers will be proportionately careful, thus
making it harder for unscrupulous tradesmen to foist poor work upon the
market, an evil which has existed and will increase as the industry
advances.
ABOUT ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MAKERS.
One of the most frequent questions asked by the would-be purchaser
of either a two- or three-wheeler is, “What make shall I buy?” And
before he settles down to a matter of comparison between individual
firms he must first settle whether he will buy an English or American
mount. This difficulty is, however, of less importance than he is apt
to imagine, because, beyond all question, there are wheels good enough
for any one made in either country. The chief trouble will lie in
choosing between the different makers, especially if he concludes to
try an English wheel. This, as regards the English builders, arises
from no general lack of capability among them, but it is simply due
to the fact that the industry is so much more widely disseminated
there than here. That is to say, there are so many more factories
already established and new ones starting there, that, as a natural
consequence, some incompetent people, with inadequate plant and
machinery, will be certain to creep into the field. This is a temporary
condition of affairs as between the two countries, for it will not be
long until the same conditions will apply here in America. Now, the
reader might infer that we condemn new and small makers, but by no
means is this so. There are many small shops that turn out the best of
work, some of them do not make the entire machine, but purchase many
parts from manufacturers of specialties; but, as a general rule, it is
a little safer to buy of a larger concern, that makes, as nearly as
possible, the entire machine. This will apply in any line of business,
especially if the buyer is not an expert in judging of the goods. On
the other hand, there is this fact to contend against with the larger
manufacturers,—when they make a mistake at all it is almost sure to
be one comparable to the size of their business. In the small shops
an error will be discovered more quickly, and, as a rule, will be
rectified before many machines go on the market.
In America the larger concerns are so vastly predominant over the
small that the buyer has only to decide between articles of established
reputation; the American factories do not seem to have ever been small.
In a large majority of cases there are certain peculiarities about
the machines which not only settle the matter _nationally_, but as
to individual makers. Some little point at once takes the eye or the
heart of the buyer, and that settles it all; and perhaps it is best it
should be so. Nationally considered, the English have had much larger
and more varied experience in the cycle industry than we have had;
they have more experts in the line and are nearer to the fountain head
of supplies, particularly in regard to tubing, and no matter how soon
we on this side may have tube-works, it will be some time before we
can depend upon them. The English have taken advantage of their good
fortune, and, together with the natural precedence in this art which
we all agree has been allotted to them, they have gone ahead without
the erroneous veneration generally felt in favor of their grandfather’s
method, which has blinded them so often in their advancement in other
arts. It was a marvellous sight to the writer to see a bicycle firm,
flush with the times in all their work, in a factory almost nestling
against other places devoted to making fusee watches with “Granddaddy
winding-apparatuses,” making watch-cases by gradually punching them
into a conical cast-iron cavity, cutting alleged screw bezels with a
chaser in a lathe pulled back by a hickory spring, and such eocenic
appliances.
In Coventry there stood, wet and rusting in an old botanical
conservatory, one of the finest of American watch-case tools, which
some ambitious English watch-maker, in a fit of sanity, had taken over;
but his men could not, or probably would not, use it. Yet a great cycle
firm had just bought, and was using, one of the very finest Brown &
Sharp lathes, merely, I suppose, to make sure that no Yankee should
get the better of them in tools. This is not an admission on their
part that all English tools are immature affairs; they need not admit
anything of the kind, for among the number of tons of cast iron in a
twelve-inch screw lathe which you see in every cycle shop, a small
part of one ton, at least, is fixed to do some work, and accurate work
at that. It was a fortunate thing for our mother country in the cycle
business that it was clogged by no fettering precedents or mediæval
rules of mechanics. The English cycle-makers are abreast of the times
in their line, and there is no better illustration of the total absence
of all effect of surroundings upon this great industry than the fact
that the lightest cycles in the world are made with such ponderous
tools. It must have been a great feat, in view of their proclivities
for substantial machinery, to shave off the last superfluous ounce
in a bicycle. In short, it has been impressed very forcibly on the
writer’s mind that the famous Yankee ingenuity is simply unchained
English genius. In our heated discussions as to whether the American
manufacturer, with a higher rate of wages, could hold his own against
the English without a discriminating tariff duty, there may be two
sides in regard to watch-making and some other industries, but when
applied to cycles it is nonsense to suppose that we could compete.
As to American machines, that which would strike us as remarkable in
the English would be, to a large extent, natural to our institutions;
that all machine parts should be accurately made and be interchangeable
would be taken for granted when coming from one of our factories,
but it is a little odd to find it approached by others. The absolute
regularity and similarity with which work is turned out by us is
sometimes an objection; if a part is too hard or brittle, or in any
way bad in its construction and form, a part for the same purpose,
from the same factory, will be sure to be just like the one you want
to replace; in fact, if you have one bad part, depend upon it there
have been thousands made just like it, and you will be pretty certain
to get one of them. It is generally conceded that the American maker
is more careful to test his new plans before placing the product upon
the market; anyhow, since the customer in this country is able to get
to head-quarters more easily with his complaint, he generally favors
buying at home, though it is often a very close contest in his mind
just what to do.
However a cyclist may feel in regard to this question of English
or American machines, it would be best in the long run to settle the
question entirely upon the merits and quality of the work. It is a bad
plan to implicitly take the word of a salesman regardless of one’s own
judgment. The variety of machines has become so great that it is more
than likely the customer will generally have to buy from the maker
who has adopted the special style of machine the buyer is determined
to have. But let this not deter him from insisting on a high grade of
workmanship and excellence of material.