Page:The Cycle Industry (1921).djvu/16

2 sewing machine factory, and having been much impressed by the novelty and possibilities of the new velocipede, immediately secured a sample of the machine and brought or sent it to Coventry. The directors and managers of the concern there, after a trial of the boneshaker sent over from Paris, decided to begin manufacturing and marketing the machine, and a dozen or so were put in hand at their workshops and proved a success. This bicycle was made with a cast-iron frame, the felloes and spokes of the wheels were of hickory, with steel tyres, and the saddle was a wooden one covered with leather, thinly padded, and supported on a long flat spring of steel; the bearings were plain journals, i.e. in place of steel ball bearings the axles of the wheels were of steel and they turned in chilled cast iron holes in the ends of the forks. The pedals were called "treadles" and were mostly of wood. A machine of this description, ready for the road, was sold in London for about £12, without accessories such as lamp, pocket oil can, shifting spanner, leather toolbag and brake cord, which cost about 25s. more.

The success of this machine made by the Coventry Machinists Company laid the foundation of the trade in Coventry, and it was not very long before quite a considerable business was done by the pioneer firm, and they found it necessary to import into the city mechanics who were more used to the running of heavier machinery than their first employees, engaged in the making of sewing machines.

Many of these men came from a firm of ships engine makers, Penn's, of Greenwich, now merged with other concerns. Among them were such well-known names as George Singer, James Starley, W. Hillman, etc. T. Bayliss and J. Thomas were pioneers in the trade;