1912 H Hunt & Co Floor-mounted Home Trainer

H HUNT FLOOR-MOUNTED TRAINERS ON THE TITANIC, 1912

Home trainers owed their invention to inclement winter weather and the need for racing cyclists to maintain their exercise regimes on a daily basis. By the turn of the century, various companies were manufacturing home training equipment for practical use by the casual cyclist. The model featured here was used in the gymnasiums of the Titanic and other cruise liners.

(as used in the Titanic gymnasium)

(Now sold)

One of these Hunt stationary trainers can be seen in the gymnasium of the Titanic in the 1912 photograph below. It’s a rare survivor in excellent original working condition.

HOME TRAINERS HISTORY

H. HUNT & Co

89 & 93 Windsor St, Liverpool

H.Hunt and Sons Ltd were a Liverpool based gymnastic equipment manufacturing company who developed an adjustable timber based system marketed as the Windsor Rock Climbing Wall, presumably because they were based at 89-93 Windsor Street, Liverpool. Incidentally, 17 year old Ringo Starr took a job there in 1957 as an apprentice joiner until 1960 when the lure of playing with Rory Storm And The Hurricane proved too much. The main feature of H.Hunt and Sons adjustable wall was that it stored vertically against the wall of a building and when pulled out for use could be used on both sides. It created two different walls or created a chimney and could be sited at different angles creating slabs and overhanging walls. The surface was covered with holes so that it resembled a peg board and therefore individual hand and foot holds could be put in to create different climbs.

Ringo’s biography mentions his apprenticeship at H. Hunt & Co:

“Ritchie took a messenger job with the British Railroad, but had to quit when he failed the medical exam. He next worked as a barman on a boat that traveled between Liverpool and Wales, but he was fired when he turned up for work in an inebriated state and lipped off to his boss. Finally, when he was seventeen, he took a job at Henry Hunt and Son’s engineering firm as an apprentice joiner.

…The Hurricanes and their intrepid leader were known as much for their outlandish dress and exuberant stage performance as for their music and by 1960, they were the top ranked band in Liverpool. 1960 not only brought the band an offer of a thirteen week summer engagement at Butlins in Pwllheli, Wales, but also a big dilemma for Richard Starkey. In order to accompany the band to Pwllheli, Ritchie would have to give up his apprenticeship at Hunt and Son.

His parents desperately tried to persuade him to stay with the program as did his fiancee, a lass named Geraldine. However, the lure of twenty pounds a week proved to be too much. The engagement was called off, the day job was abandoned, and Richard Starkey traipsed off to a rather damp summer of adventure with Rory, John Byrnes, Charles O’Brien, and Wally Egmond.”