1888 New Rapid Safety (Cross frame)

1888 New Rapid Safety (Cross frame)

Built by St George’s Engineering Co

30″ Front wheel

28″ Rear wheel

This is a rare crossframe safety that fortunately was illustrated in the 1888 catalogue from Samuel T. Clark of Baltimore, who were the American agents for St George’s Engineering Co. Though its ball-bearing steering head and solid (narrow diameter) top tube is advanced for its age, its chain adjustment is primitive, involving adjustable chain stays plus a stay to the bottom bracket that could be loosened or tightened by a nut at the top.

It is a wonderfully original machine, with a unique rear step, original mudguards (the front one repaired) and (I assume) original pedals.

The rear solid tyre has wire around it suggesting that it is loose (which is common with 140 year old solid tyres), and you can see a wire around the bottom of the brake plunger too. It is rideable over a short distance, but the solid tyres will need replacing for serious riding. I can supply a length of this size of tyre if required.

ST. GEORGE’S ENGINEERING CO

This firm was previously known as Newton, Wilson & Co who were sewing machine manufacturers. James Starley and Josiah Turner worked there in 1859 before they both moved in May 1861 to Coventry to set up the European Sewing Machine Co and later the Coventry Sewing Machine Co …which subsequently became the Coventry Machinists’ Co.

As St George’s Foundry Co, the company built and sold ordinaries. The name was changed to St George’s Engineering Co in 1885. and machines were exported to the USA for sale through their agents Samuel T. Clark of Baltimore, USA.

The New Rapid Ordinary was a well-publicized model, and the company won a gold medal at the 1885 International Inventions Exhibition in London for the New Rapid tangent wheel. In the mid-1880s the firm produced the Rapid Hill Gear, using spur gears, operated by a lever, to gear up and down. Presumably this influenced the company’s choice of new name when it changed to New Rapid Cycle Co around 1893.

The first New Rapid Safety was introduced in 1886. The model featured here superseded their first pattern safety, presumably being introduced in 1888 as it appears in Clark of Baltimore’s catalogue of that date.

New Rapid Cycle Co were in financial difficulties by 1898. By 1907, Armstrong Triplex gears were being made at the St. George’s Engineering factory. New Hudson Cycle Manufacturing Co were major customers for the Armstrong Triplex gears, and it is believed that they took over the New Rapid Cycle Co in 1915.