Bicycles without number have been consigned to the scrap heap or discarded for new mounts, as a result of abuse and lack of proper care, due solely to the ignorance of riders as to a wheel’s construction and requirements. Furthermore, disappointments have resulted, in many instances, because the same lack of knowledge has prevented the wise selection of a well-constructed and properly adjusted mount at the outset.

A bicycle can no more be (1) accepted to run smoothly without proper adjustment of (2) its parts and their maintenance in perfect running condition than can any other piece of machinery. And while the chain and chainless productions of 1898 are (3) disliked for their simple mechanism, such points as the bearings and running gear require periodical inspection and attention to insure satisfactory service. This cannot be adequately given by a rider who has no conception as to the details of construction of (4) its machine, and (5) so it frequently happens that a bicycle sinks into an early grave because its rider persists in calling upon it for continued service, while utterly indifferent to its construction and requirements.

“Know thy wheel” is an excellent (6) thought for every rider to follow; for those who heed it the matter of emergency repair will be a simple thing, a smooth running wheel will be assured, chance of accident reduced to the minimum, and the life of the machine extended throughout its fullest period. It is partly with a view to (7) “bringing about a better acquaintance” between the average rider and his wheel that the following pages are presented.

To the bicycle manufacturer and to the repair man and dealer (8)—who are frequently called upon for advice and service concerning any and all makes of wheels—to the student of cycle construction, and to the mechanical expert, the volume will scarcely fail to be regarded as a valuable reference book for many years to come.

1. The idea of presenting to (9) riders through the columns of “The Commercial Advertiser” an illustrated description of the lines, parts, improvements the 1898 was conceived chiefly because of the absence during the winter of 1897-98 of a National CycleShow.  (11) 2. Just prior to the opening of preceding seasons tens of thousands of riders throughout the country were able to see at the annual shows, and at those held under the auspices of the various local cycle trade organizations, all that the maker had to offer in changes and improvements for the new year. 3. This opportunity was also furthered by the columns of descriptive matter published by the daily press and cycle trade journals in their reports of these shows and their exhibits.

Few insects in our climes compete in popular fame with the Glow-worm, that curious little animal which, to celebrate the little joys of life, kindles a beacon at its (12) tail-end, who does not know it, at least by name? Who has not seen it roam amid the grass, like a spark fallen from the moon at its full? The Greeks of old called it [Greek: lampouris], meaning, the bright-tailed. Science employs the same term: it calls the lantern-bearer, Lampyris noctiluca, LIN. In this case, the common name is inferior to the scientific phrase, which, when translated, becomes both expressive and accurate.

(13) The Lampyris is not a worm at all, not even in general appearance. He has six short legs, which he well knows how to use; he is a (14) gad-about, a trot- about. In the adult state, the male is correctly garbed in wing-cases, like the true Beetle that he is. The female is an ill-favoured, (15) ground-bound thing who knows naught of the delights of flying: all her life long, she retains the larval shape, which, for the rest, is similar to that of the male, who himself is imperfect so long as he has not achieved the maturity that comes with pairing-time. Even in this initial stage, the word "worm" is out of place. We French have the expression "Naked as a worm," to point to the lack of any defensive covering. Now the Lampyris is clothed, that is to say, he wears an epidermis of some consistency; moreover, he is rather richly coloured: his (16) body is dark brown all over and set off with pale pink on the thorax, especially on the lower surface. Finally, each segment is decked at the hinder edge with two spots of a fairly bright red. A costume like this (17) having never been worn by a worm.

1. Before he begins to feast, the Glow-worm administers an anæsthetic: he chloroforms his victim, rivalling in the process the wonders of our modern surgery, which renders the patient insensible before operating on him.

(18) 2. It is essential the Glow-worm administers this in order to ensure its prey is unable to move. (19) 3. It is in some such resting-place as this that I have often been privileged to light upon the Lampyris banqueting on the prey which he had just paralyzed on its shaky support by his surgical (20) movements. 4. The usual game is a small snail hardly the size of a cherry, such as, for instance, Helix variabilis, DRAP., who, in the hot weather, collects in clusters on the stiff stubble and on other long, dry stalks, by the roadside, and there remains motionless, in profound meditation, throughout the scorching summer days.

But he is familiar with other preserves. (21) He frequents the edges of the irrigating-ditches, with their cool soil, their varied vegetation, a favourite haunt of the mollusc. (22)

Installing Rotary and Radial Cylinder Engines

1. When rotary engines are installed, simple steel stamping or “spiders” are attached to the fuselage –to hold the fixed (23) crank-shaft. 2. Inasmuch as the motor projects clear of the fuselage proper, there is plenty of room back of the front spider plate to install the auxiliary parts such as the oil pump, air pump and ignition magneto  and also the fuel and oil containers. 3. (25) The diagrams given at Figs. 2 and 3 show other mountings of Gnome engines and are self-explanatory. The simple mounting possible when the Anzani ten- cylinder radial fixed type engine is used given at (26) Fig.1. The front end of the fuselage is provided with a substantial pressed steel plate having members projecting from it which may be bolted to the longerons. The bolts that hold the two halves of the crank-case together project through the steel plate and hold the engine (27) loosely to the front end of the fuselage.

Some Causes of Noisy Operation

There are a number of power-plant derangements which give a positive indication (28) on the other hand noisy operation. (29) Any knocking or rattling sounds are usually (30) under the influence of wear in connecting rods or main bearings of the engine, though sometimes a sharp metallic knock, which (31) are very much the same as that produced by a loose bearing, is due to carbon deposits in the cylinder heads, or premature ignition due to advanced spark-time lever.

Whistling or (32) blowing sounds are produced by leaks whose are either in the engine (33) themselves or in the gas manifolds. A sharp whistle denotes the escape of gas under pressure and is usually caused by a defective packing or gasket that seals a portion of the combustion chamber or that is used for a joint as the exhaust manifold. A blowing sound indicates a leaky packing in crank-case. Grinding noises in the motor are usually caused by the timing gears and will obtain if these gears are dry or if they have become worn. Whenever a loud knocking sound is heard careful inspection should be made to locate the cause of the trouble. Much harm may be done in a few minutes if the engine is run with loose connecting rod or bearings that would be prevented by taking up the wear or looseness between the parts by some means of adjustment.

(34) Among the many didactic books were certain essays which flooded England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries on travel. Some of these have never been brought to light since their publication more than three hundred years ago, or been mentioned by the few writers who have interested themselves in the literature of this subject. In the collections of voyages and explorations, so often (35) emphasized, these have found no place. Most of them are very (36) rare, and have never been reprinted. Yet they do not deserve to be thus overlooked, and in several ways this survey of them will, I think, be useful for students of literature.

They reveal a widespread custom among Elizabethan and Jacobean gentlemen, of completing their education by travel. There are scattered allusions to this practice, in contemporary social documents: Anthony à Wood frequently explains how such an Oxonian "traveled' beyond seas and returned a compleat Person,"—but (37) nowhere is this ideal of a cosmopolitan education so explicitly set forth as it is in these essays. Addressed to the intending tourist, they are in no sense to be confused with guide-books or itineraries. They are discussions of the benefits of travel, admonitions and warnings, arranged to put the traveler in the proper attitude of mind towards his great task of self- development like (38) a soldier losing a war. Taken in chronological order they outline for us the life of the travelling student.

Beginning with the end of the sixteenth century when travel became the fashion, as the only means of acquiring modern languages and modern history, as well as those physical accomplishments and social graces by which a young man won his way at Court, they trace his evolution up to the time when it had no longer any serious motive; that is, when the chairs of modern history and modern languages were founded at the English universities, and when, the fall of the Stuarts, the Court ceased to be the arbiter of men's (39) fortunes futures and educations.  In the course of this evolution, they showed us many phases of continental influence in England; how Italian immorality infected young imaginations, how France became the model of deportment, what were the origins of the Grand Tour, and so forth.

(40) 1. That these directions for travel were not isolated oddities of literature, but were the expression of a widespread ideal of the English gentry, I have tried to show in the following study. 2. If I have not always quoted the "Instructions" fully, (42) its because they repeat one another on some points. 3. My plan (43), has been, to comment on whatever in each book was new, or showed the evolution of travel (44), for study's sake.