Page:The Cycle Industry (1921).djvu/29

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EARLY HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF THE BICYCLE
15

Humbers produced an open diamond frame with all the tubes straight, which was, of course, the correct method from an engineer’s view point. The Raleigh Co., at Nottingham (then Woodhead, Angois and Ellis) made a similar machine. Makers sprang up all over the Midlands and in the London district. A famous road racing cyclist, Dan Albone of Biggleswade, designed the cross frame safety bicycle, and this was largely copied by others too numerous to mention.

Fig. 9
THE RALEIGH CYCLE CO.’S DIAMOND-FRAMED BICYCLE

Later the designers of the famous Humber firm at Beeston, near Nottingham, introduced the Beeston Humber frame. This was the forerunner of the present day safety bicycle and has been little altered to this day. Originally, the Beeston Humber had equal wheels of 28 ins., a straight tube diamond frame with a fairly long steering head and the top tube sloped slightly upwards. Naturally, the model was copied by almost every manufacturer.