Sterling Bicycle Co.
Industry | Manufacturing |
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Headquarters | United States |
Products | Bicycles |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/28/Sterling_Cycle_Shops%2C_Kenosha%2C_Wisconsin%2C_1896.jpg/220px-Sterling_Cycle_Shops%2C_Kenosha%2C_Wisconsin%2C_1896.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/Sterling_bicycle.jpg/220px-Sterling_bicycle.jpg)
Sterling Bicycle Co. (also known as Sterling Cycle Works) was a 19th-century American bicycle company first based in Chicago, Illinois before relocating to Kenosha, Wisconsin.
History
In 1894
In "The Works: The Industrial Architecture of the United States" (by Betsy Hunter Bradley – Oxford Press – Out of print?) a history of industrial buildings, the Sterling Cycle Works in Kenosha are cited by Harold Arnold ("engineer and industrial journalist") as an example of an 'open shop',[5] a single story, unpartitioned machine shop. This dates the shop to Kenosha in 1895.
In 1898 Sterling won a Silver Medal at the
In 1899, Sterling bikes were announced to be sold by the "American Bicycle Company" [8] a consortium of 44 American bike and bike part manufacturers. Incorporation papers assert these 44 companies accounted for 60% of bicycles sold in the U.S. and that, in 1899, "661,000 wheels" were sold (ibid).
The 1899
The defunct Kenosha factory was sold to
After the American Bicycle Company went bankrupt about 1900, the Westfield Manufacturing Company acquired Sterling assets (patents and trademarks) and would manufacture "The Sterling" bicycles in its own Westfield complex, with the motto "built like a watch".
The "Hand Book of the United States Tariff 1913[11] references the Sterling Cycle Works, again of Chicago as in importer of steel tubing.
Dates of operation
- Sterling Cycle Co., Chicago, IL, 1894–1898
- Sterling Cycle Co., Kenosha, WI, 1899
Advertisements
Slogans: "Built like a watch" and "Worldwide is the Sterling's reputation"
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Annie Oakley ad
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Persian (Iran) ad – 1897
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Logo
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The Kenosha Factory
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Sterling Cycle Works – Chicago 1897
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Sterling Cycle Works – Chicago 1897
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Sterling Cycle Works – Chicago 1897
External links
- 1899 "Cycle Models Illustrated and Described" (pg 643) [4]
- Annie Londonderry bio (includes photo of Sterling bike – 1985) [5]
- Annie Londonderry bio [6]
- The Trans-Mississippi International Exposition of 1898 and the concurrent Indian Congress [7]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
References
- Arnold, Horace L. "Modern Machine-Shop Economics. Part II" in Engineering Magazine11. 1896
- ^ Hungarian bio
- ^ Google excerpt
- ^ Kirkus review
- ^ The Works: The Industrial Architecture of the United States – Google book excerpt [1]
- ^ Trans-Mississippi International Exposition Archived 2008-12-10 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Awards list
- ^ The Manual of Statistics: Stock Exchange Hand-book By Financial News Association (New York, Charles M. Goodsell, Henry E. Wallace) Google excerpt [2]
- ^ Outing magazine, The 1899 Cycle Models Illustrated and Described
- ^ "Dependable" defined the 1963 Rambler Classic 660, STL Today, Retrieved on March 9, 2008
- ^ Hand Book of the United States Tariff: Containing the Tariff Act of 1913 (By Vandegrift, F.B., & Co, William Watson Rich, United States)[3]