WOOD RIMS.

As has been already noted in the article on tendencies, the wood rim has undisputed possession of the field, not a single American maker cataloguing a steel or other metal rim. Even the makers of the Eagle, who formerly used an aluminum rim, now offer it as an option only, and show all their samples with wood rims, and this may again be regarded as a reversion, the original type of the old “Dandy Horse” velocipede having been built with wood rims and shod with iron, the only difference now being that we use wood rims shod with air, and when the “[good old ordinary]” came in vogue steel rims were introduced. On the ordinary, however, which had only small solid tires, the rim was a narrow grooved one, and possessing, as it did, very little lateral strength, it had a great tendency to buckle under the force of a blow or a collision, and when the safety came in vogue this same idea of rim construction was carried into it. An improvement was made, however, in their construction in making them of a double hollow construction which increased its lateral resistance, but in case of accident made them extremely difficult to repair. A little later, when the cushion tire arrived, the single rim and the double-hollow rim were used, making them, of course, of a larger cross-section to fit the tires used, and when the pneumatic tire was invented the steel rims first used very much resembled a band of hoop iron used on an ordinary washtub. Afterward double-hollow rims were used on bicycles with pneumatic tires, and single rims which were fluted or corrugated in order to give them additional stiffness were also used. In 1891 McKee & Harrington of New York City, the makers of the Lyndhurst, introduced a bicycle having wood rims. These rims were made of second-growth white ash and were of the single-piece variety, joined together with a long, tapering “skive,” and the entire rim and joint were covered with natural color Pongee silk, which was glued on, producing a watertight rim. This rim was the production of Mr. Charles Harrington of this firm, who for many years before entering the bicycle business had been known as a practical wood worker. Makers and riders were very skeptical of the value of the wood rim, but after a few well-known racing men had won a few track and road events on them and the wood rim had shown its utility and value by its increased resiliency and speed, and that it was stronger across its lateral plane than a steel rim of any type could ever hope to be, and with its non-liability, therefore, to buckle in a collision, it became a popular thing, and in less than two years, as has been seen, it has completely routed the steel rim out of the American market. In England, however, owing to the large use of the detachable tire and the moist climate, its advance has not been so rapid, but it is coming along even there, and it bids fair to supplant the steel rim there in another season or two. One-piece rims are not so largely used as heretofore. The laminated rim as now made, which was originated in 1893, seems to be the most popular one on a majority of the high cost bicycles on the market. It is to be noted, however, that the rims of this season, almost without exception, are broader across their face and thicker through in section, which is an especially good feature, inasmuch as it gives the tire a larger and firmer bed to rest upon, so that it is not so liable to be cut by the edges of the rim. Of course, making the rim broader and thicker and heavier takes away some of the points which were formerly used in its favor, notably those of light weight and resiliency. The up-to-date wood rim more closely approaches in weight the lightest possible form of steel rim, and it is a notable fact that the wood rim is the only prominent contribution in bicycle construction that America has presented to the world, and there is good reason for this, however, because our Yankee and our Western wood workers have long been famous for their progress in the art of wood working and wood bending. One of the most famous wood benders is Mr. H. H. Shepard of New Haven, Conn. In 1889 he had the temerity to send to the Paris Exposition, in the care of a French exhibitor, not wishing to go to the expense of a personal representation, some samples of his wood bending. These samples came in direct competition with the great Vienna, German and French wood benders, and although Mr. Shepard, as before stated, was not personally represented, to his great surprise the Commissioners unanimously awarded him the only solid silver medal for superior excellence in that department.

PLYMOUTH RIM.KUNDTZ RIM.

This same Mr. H. H. Shepard (who, by the way, is a six-footer and bearded like a patriarch), in a lecture in New York City on wood-bending before the master mechanics of the Carriage Makers’ Association, placed his audience in good humor with him when he declared that his earliest recollections of bending were when, while a boy, his mother bent him over her knee to keep him straight. The Shepard is a one-piece wood rim of second growth white ash. The ends are butted together and an ovoid piece of hardwood is inserted over the butt ends on the inside of the joint. This insert extends about three inches each side of the butt-ended joint and is flush with the remainder of the rim. These rims are bent by compressing the inner surface in a hydraulic press without stretching the outer periphery of the rim. This method shortens the inner surface about six inches, thereby greatly toughening the inner surface of the wood. The average weight of the steel rim formerly used was about 24 ounces. The average weight of the wood rim used for a cemented-on tire as first made was about 14 ounces. The average weight of the wood rim in use today is probably about 18 ounces.