1879 Coventry Machinists’ Co ‘The Gentlemen’s Bicycle’
54″ Wheel
Location; Australia (Farren Collection, Melbourne)
free book included ‘Bicycling Through Time’
(Now sold)
The Coventry Machinists’ Co, started by Josiah Turner and James Starley in 1869, was the first British bicycle manufacturer. The founders of many well-known cycle companies started their careers working there. The company owned many cycle patents, and were respected for the quality of their bicycles, which stood out as a result of various innovative features.
Four unique features can be seen on this historic machine:
1. V pattern wheel rims, as used on the first ordinary (the ‘Ariel’ patented by James Starley and William Hillman in 1870). Only used on CMC ordinaries.
2. Spoking designed by James Starley, only used on CMC ordinaries.
3. Oval backbone.
4. Rear brake activated by rotating the handlebar as on a velocipede; it connects by wire to the pivot on the rear fork above the rear wheel. 1879 was the last year of this primitive brake design, as front brakes had now become the industry standard. The company would have been using up old stock, sold as a cheaper alternative to their new ‘Club’ models.
The machine has been in the Farren Collection for many years, and this is the first time it has been advertised. It is an inherently weak model, prone to cracking at the steering head, so it is probably best for display rather than anything more strenuous than an occasional local ride.
1879 COVENTRY MACHINISTS’ Co CATALOGUE EXTRACTS
“Coventry is not only a city of spires – it is a city of surprises. In no other town in the kingdom is the juxtaposition of the old and the new so marked as in this corner of Shakespeare’s county. …A stone’s throw from a mediaeval hospice rises a cycle manufactory – in fact, the pioneer factory of the industry.
…As a manufacturing company, it came into existence as far back as 1830, when it started the making of sewing machines for the laudable purpose of giving employment to the large number of poverty-stricken creatures who were thrown out in consequence of the decline in the silk trade. In turn, the Machinists’ Company itself suffered from the fierce competition of the United States, supplemented by the opposition of rival firms in Scotland and England. Then it was that the company began to build velocipedes of the ‘bone-shaker’ pattern, soon to be replaced by the ‘spider wheel’ and the rubber tyre…”
– ‘The Illustrated London News’, 15 August, 1896
