CHAPTER XVII
ACCESSORIES
Under the above heading are all the parts used on a bicycle that are not catalogued with the machine under its specification and price. Also, one might say, saddles, pedals, and tool-bags are accessories; these are always included in the price of a bicycle, yet bells and lamps are seldom, if ever, thrown in. Doubtless there are good and sufficient reasons for this method of trading, although one or two manufacturers did make an attempt some years ago to initiate the method of selling a bicycle complete and ready for the road. The chief reason for selling sundries apart are that individual taste differs: some will equip the cheapest form of bicycle with expensive lamps, bell, luggage-carrier, etc.; whereas others will have the very best bicycle obtainable and do not mind cutting down cost in the equipment.
The manufacture of accessories is a separate branch of the industry, and has, like the actual cycle production, grown from small businesses to the very large factories that are now solely devoted to such articles as saddles, bells, tool-bags, lamps for oil and acetylene gas, tyre pumps, and a host of other articles that may be seen displayed in the windows of cycle and accessory depots and shops.
The two most important accessories—lamps and saddles—were quite early a separate branch of the trade. To Mr. John Harrington is probably due the earliest introduction of a spring bicycle saddle: it was known as Harrington’s Cradle Spring Saddle and, as will be seen by the accompanying illustration, was
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