Page:The Cycle Industry (1921).djvu/112

98 from the centre or hub of the large front wheel between the spokes. As may be imagined, the bearing at the top of the lamp, which opened to embrace the hub spindle, very often fitted a little tight, or the method of adjusting it went wrong; then the lamp stuck and rotated with the spindle.

With the introduction of the safety bicycle, head lamps became the order of the day. At first, these were attached to their bracket without a spring connection, or spring back as it is termed. Subsequently, various spring devices were brought out to insulate the lamp from vibration; but the present arrangement survived them all, and is sufficiently well known to need no description.

Somewhere about 1888 to 1890, so far as I remember, I bought my first acetylene gas lamp. It came from United States of America, and was called "The 20th Century." I have secured an illustration of this lamp, which had no spring back, although it was adjustable for focusing the light on the road. It was rather a heavy specimen, but gave a splendid illumination and caused some envy among my club mates for several weeks. The principle of gas generation, by water dropping on the carbide from the top compartment behind the lens and burner carrier; the carriage of the carbide in a vessel below the water reservoir; and the adjustment of the feed of water by a screw-down needle has not changed from that day to the present time. The only addition has been the spring back for cycle lamps and a separate generator for motor cycle lamps.

In the separate generator type, the gas is conveyed by rubber tubing to the burner of a separate lamp from a separate vessel holding water and carbide. Greater carbide and water-carrying capacity, heavier lamps, and consequent increased weight caused the lamp and