Page:The Cycle Industry (1921).djvu/45

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MATERIALS
31

are almost wholly produced in Birmingham, some in Edinburgh, Leicester, and, again, some in Silvertown, Essex. The castings and stampings are produced in Coventry, Birmingham, Walsall, Dronfield, Oakengates, etc. Rims are made in Birmingham and Coventry.

The industry may now be said to have spread all over the Midlands, Yorkshire, and parts of London. In fact there are very few places now where something or other is not made which is used in the manufacture of bicycles. Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Bristol, London, etc., supply the enamels and paints used for the finishing of the frames and wheels. Yorkshire, Coventry, Birmingham, America, and before the war, Germany, supplied machine tools. Nickel plating materials are supplied from Birmingham but some of the material comes from overseas. Sweden sends the steel blocks from which the steel tubing is made. Tin plates for chain cases come from South Wales, celluloid for handles from Germany, leather for saddles from the Argentine, balls for bearings from Sweden, rubber for tyres and pedals from South America, Ceylon, Java, etc. So one might go on enumerating the different centres of industry that supply the cycle trade; but it does not require much imagination to compare the early struggles of the pioneer cycle mechanics with those of the present day, who have largely to fit together what is made for them by other producers.