I was certainly not as clear as I might have been with my account of Claud Butler and the Avant Coureur.
But I certainly know what I meant...
Claud Butler introduced the fillet brazed with sleeves type construction in its own range in 1948 - I cannot at present find my reference but it was announced in Cycling. Claud Butler gave this type of construction the name bi-laminated.
Claud Butler certainly did not use this construction method previously. His welded and they are clearly described in the catalogue as low temperature welded ie fillet brazed were launched in Cycling magazine (26th October 1938) for the 1939 models. This was his Massed Start model. The article says that Claud Butler had been experimenting and perfecting this method of construction over the previous 12 months.
With Paris Cycles exactly what happened is far less clear - I have copies of two pre-war Rensch catalogues (the name that was used by Harry Rensch pre-war exclusively) - it was only during war time that the name Paris Cycles was introduced. But Rensch/Paris did not exhibit at the shows pre-war and were far less good at publicity than Claud Butler was. Both pre-war Rensch catalogues mention welded models - none mention extra sleeving - however the same is true of the post-war Paris catalogues too. The 1939 Rensch catalogue does however claim to have been making welded frames for 'several years'. I had a Paris/Rensch frame about 15 years ago with quite a low frame number (Paris used a simple sequential number) which was fillet brazed with sleeves - whether it was actually wartime or just postwar I would not be certain. However at this year's V-CC Reading Lightweight ride there was a Rensch badged bike in its original paint which was without doubt fillet brazed with sleeves - these were of a different pattern to any used post-war and the whole style suggested pre-war - seat tube chain oiler, genuine Osgear rear ends and pre-war Gloria brakes. This bike I would be fairly certain was pre-war. In any case though Paris certainly launched the Galibier in 1945/6 and this was fillet brazed with sleeves as was the standard diamond framed Tour de France model from 1946. Both these clearly predate Claud's use of the same type of construction. The only difference was that Paris/Rensch never highlighted this form of construction and never used the term bi-laminated.
So to conclude:
Rensch/Paris definitely introduced fillet brazing with sleeve type of construction before Claud Butler almost certainly pre-war.
Claud Butler coined the term bi-laminated in 1948 and introduced it himself in 1948 on the Avant Coureur model.
One last quick note - fillet brazing was not unknown before the 1930s - Rudge used fillet brazing with internal lugs from 1897 until just after WWI.
Hilary Stone, Bristol, England
> Hilary's account of this in his C+ article is not to his usual very lucid
> level, so I suspect he too may be struggling with scraps of dickey data.
>
> Stratton quoted Hilary as: "Bilamination construction was first introduced by
> Claud Butler, as far as we can tell in 1948 in the first version of the Avant
> Courier model. Paris Cycles also used a similar construction method-so Claud
> Butler cannot claim it as a first..."
>
> This is dodgy. Somebody develops a new construction method and it gets a
> name. Now if Claud devised the method first and also gave it the name,
> Paris's ain't in the picture. If Paris's devised the method first and also
> gave it the name, Claud ain't in the picture. But Hilary suggests Paris's
> developed the method first and Claud adopted the name later. If so, he is
> wrong to say "Bilamination construction was first introduced by Claud Butler",
> it should be "Bilamination construction was first introduced by Paris Cycles,
> although the name was coined later by Claud Butler, who developed a similar
> method in 1948, as far as we can tell". If it was just that Claud got to the
> Patent office first, surely Paris's would not be allowed to make any bi-lams.
>
> It seems to me that some people happily accept that Claud is credited with
> Bi-lamination because he thought up the name. So let me give two examples:
>
> 1) Drs Banting and Best discover a substance, they name it Isletin. Their
> boss, Prof Johnson pooh poohs it, shifts them to another task and publishes
> under his own name, but first he renames it Insulin. He gets caught. History
> records Banting and Best discovered insulin (Johnson's name).
>
> 2) The French put a pole across 2 wheels and call it a velocipede. Years
> later a Scot makes a bicycle with pedals driving rods to the rear wheel. We
> both claim to have invented the bicycle. We say that without a means of
> propulsion it ain't a bike, they say bollocks (in French). We each try to
> define what constitutes a bicycle to suit ourselves. Why bother? If the
> bi-lam logic is right we Brits can claim it because we coined the NAME
> bicycle, they called it velocipede, even the name bicyclette came later.
> (oops, before CR timeline so OT) ;^)
>
> I hope this shows that the inventor is the person who is first to come up with
> the goods, or the patent, naming is another issue. So the salient questions
> seem to be:
>
> 1) Is Hilary right in saying Clauds first Bi-lam was the AC in 1948?
> 2) Can we put a date on the launch of Clauds AC? (Earl's Court Show 48?)
> 3) When was Paris's first Bi-lam frame offered?
> 4) Can we put a date on the launch of Paris's first Bi-lam?
>
> Most of us cannot answer any one of the above, yet the data must be out there
> somewhere.
>
> Can you answer, or even part answer any one?
> My next post will look at defining Bi-lam.
>
> Norman Kilgariff, saving for a bi-lam zimmer (Glasgow, Scotland)
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------
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