1900 Elliott Women's Safety Bicycle
edited by David Barth, 6 June 2011.
Courtesy The Forney Museum of Transportation at 4303 Brighton Blvd., Denver,
Colorado 80216. Photos were taken in June 2011.
This is bicycle, manufactured by Elliott, has cork grips, pneumatic tires, and a front brake that rubs against the rubber tire, a leather seat, and wooden spokes. Bicycles of this era
that had wheels of equal diameter were called "Safety" bicycles because they were much safer to ride compared to the earlier high-wheeled bikes that were difficult to mount and
dispmount and had a propensity to toss the rider forward, over the handle bars.
Sterling Elliott (1852–1922) was born in 1852 on a farm in Ortonville, Michigan. He produced a series of successful inventions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In his lifetime
he would hold over 125 patents, receiving his first t the young age of 22. He was foremost an Inventor but also a successful businessman. His tenacity and determination to improve on
everyday objects helped enhance the quality of life for established businesses, as well as the average person. His inventive mind and creative genius would bring us the first Knot Tying
machine, the low-wheeled trotting sulky, the Elliott addressing machine, the pneumatic tire, the ball bearing, and, last but not least, the unequal turning of the front wheels or
steering knuckle (i.e. kingpin) that would turn out to be a critical element in the success of the automobile.
Sterling Elliott was born in 1852 on a farm in Ortonville, Michigan. At the age of twelve years old all of the farm work was turned over to Sterling. At the age of seventeen, with help
from his mother, Sterling Elliott packed a bag and left home. He walked the 92 miles to Grand Rapids where he arrived in 1869 with about $8.00 in his pocket. His first job in Grand Rapids
was to work on the railroad trains selling candy and fruit. In 1870 he went to Chicago where he worked for a wealthy business man, Mr. Matthew Laflin. In Chicago Sterling Elliott was
granted several United States Patents on his inventions, but he had no shop and contracted with others to manufacture his inventions. Mr. Elliott decided to move to Boston,
Massachusetts where he opened his first machine shop. In 1882 he bought some land a few miles west of Boston and moved into his own factory.
From 1885 to 1896 Sterling Elliott made many products, but his principle products were bicycles and trotting sulkies. As a side line he published "The Bicycling World" and was
President of the League of American Wheelmen and Chairman of its committee that controlled Bicycle Racing. In 1887 Sterling Elliott made a four-wheeled bicycle
which he called a quadricycle and with it experienced all the problems that automobile manufacturers were later to face. Sterling Elliott sold the Elliott Bicycle Factory to the Stanley
Brothers of Stanley Steamer car fame and opened the Elliott Addressing Machine Company in 1900.
The Exhibit number is 119.
