Équipements et Outillage — L’Officiel du cycle, 3 June 1950, a Stamped Seat Lug, Neon Lighting and the P.A.L. Locknut

From L’Officiel du cycle, 3 June 1950, page 17: the column of product notes: a stamped seat lug, neon lighting for cycles, the P.A.L. locknut and Daudon specialties. The title, headings, captions and lists are transcribed as printed; the text is summarized in Ebykr’s words, and the page images carry it in full. It belongs to the trade columns that the weekly addressed to the French cycle dealers, the vélocistes.

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Equipements & Outillage

Raccord de selle à fuseaux
de haubans emboutis

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The paper presents a fine piece of work by a Lyon constructeur who has produced a seat lug with both seat-stay sockets pressed in one piece, so that the rear of the frame can be built entirely by brazing. The lug shown in the drawing is pressed from sheet steel, which makes it stronger, and then reamed to the exact dimensions for the tubes; the two rear sockets take tubes of 13 diameter. The writer stresses how hard it is to form these two sockets with a cylindrical part of 20 mm., calls it a real feat worth congratulating and adds that the lug can be cut out with windows at the customer’s request. Since brazed frame building is in growing favor, he expects the new lug to interest many constructeurs.]

Axe du tube de selle

L’application du NÉON à
l’éclairage des cycles

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. Touring the stands of the Grand Palais at the Foire de Lyon, the writer was struck by a very small device shown on the stand of Cycles « Furet » under the name « Néoncycle », and asked its maker for technical details. As the name suggests, it applies neon to cycle lighting: a small, robust transformer, housed for economy in a standard rear lamp, fits any bicycle; the bulb is replaced by a small tube, and a very simple device converts the 6-volt current to 150 volts. With an ordinary dynamo, the voltage produced at walking pace is enough to make this filamentless lamp glow brightly; it withstands very high voltages and is described as practically everlasting. The neon lamp draws only about 1 milliampère 5, three or four times less than an ordinary rear bulb, so the front headlamp gets nearly all the dynamo’s current and is clearly brighter. The set is moderately priced and sold with a certificate of guarantee. Judging by the crowd around the « Furet » stand, the firm’s slogan was well received by cyclists:]

« Plus d’ampoules grillées,
» Un éclairage AV intensifié,
» Un feu rouge inusable toujours visible »,

[Ebykr summary, continued. The writer expects no vélociste to miss the significance of the invention and wishes quick success to its maker, M. A. Baillester, of Villeurbanne (Rhône).]

Le contre-écrou P.A.L.

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The P.A.L. locknut is cut in one piece from spring steel or another suitable metal; when made of steel it is carefully hardened and tempered so that it is hard and elastic. Its working part is a cone pierced at the center whose inner edge follows the form of the thread; this edge is slit to form elastic jaws that close on and grip the thread when the locknut is tightened. Its advantages are listed as security against vibration thanks to its low moment of inertia, lightness, small size, speed of fitting and price. In the United States, where it is in common use, constructeurs use it at the most delicate points of their equipment; on the Jeep it locks the connecting-rod cap nuts, a reference the writer says needs no further comment.]

La Moto Brouette BELL

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The capacity of an ordinary wheelbarrow, unchanged in principle for centuries, is limited by the strength and endurance of the man who pushes it, so its output is variable and fairly low. The BELL motorized wheelbarrow, whose output does not depend on human strength or stamina, is called a considerable advance for every trade that must move dry or wet materials, in blocks or powder, rough or machined parts, heavy or fragile pieces. The driver makes no effort; he only steers it and controls the tipping of the load, which the machine does mechanically. The writer notes that this very simple machine is made by the « Bell Aircraft Corporation », a well-known aircraft maker, which he takes as assurance that no detail of its construction has been neglected.]

Parmi les spécialités DAUDON

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The well-known constructeur DAUDON, mentioned in the paper’s report on the « Polymultipliée », is described as the creator of a host of ingenious and practical specialties that improve the bicycle down to its smallest details. Two are noted today: a bottom-bracket axle with annular bearings that spreads the load automatically over the whole of each bearing, for clearly better efficiency; and an ultra-rigid stem with collar clamping and 4 nuts, described as a high-security stem that has proved itself (the text prints « hautes écurité »). The paper promises to study several other DAUDON innovations in this department, saying they are worth it and will interest every vélociste.]

Les ” Équipements et Outillage ”
de l’Automobile

sont présentés dans

” L’Officiel
de l’Automobile ”

[A full page of text in three columns of italic type, each item under a bold roman heading and separated by small three-star ornaments. The department title “Equipements & Outillage” is drawn across the head in heavy upright script, without an accent on the capital E, over triple rules. Four drawings illustrate the items: in the first column a technical outline drawing in solid, dashed and center lines of the pressed seat lug in two views, labeled “Axe du tube de selle” in hand lettering; in the second column a line engraving with bold hatching of the hexagonal P.A.L. locknut with its slotted inner jaws; in the third column a line engraving of a bottom-bracket axle with its two ball races and a separate cup, and below it a sketchier pen drawing of a stem with its four-nut collar clamp and lettering along its extension. No signature or monogram can be found on any of the four drawings. At the foot of the third column a ruled box announces, in condensed and then spaced bold sans-serif with the closing lines in bold italic, that the automobile “Équipements et Outillage” are presented in “L’Officiel de l’Automobile”. The bottom rule of the box lies at the very edge of the photograph and no folio shows.]