The oiling system Mick Butler was talking about is to be found, most prominently, on Opel ZR3 racers from the twenties. I used to have one minus the oil tap that lets the lubricant drip out of the seat tube onto the chain.
However, imagine your typical dusty country road from the twenties, and then oil dripping onto the chain constantly... yuck. The chainring was a toothless tiger. More yuck down the seat tube, much more of it, after fifty plus years in an attic, but not a trace of rust.
Toni Theilmeier, Belm, Germany.