Steven Maasland wrote
<I agree with everything here except to point out that Steel cotterless cranks were very common in Italy on city bikes (also known as roadsters) as far back as the late 20's. In fact many bike brands used them almost exclusively (Taurus is one brand that comes to mind). Oddly enough the same brands that used cotterless cranks on their city bikes rarely did the same on their racing bikes.>
Rudge were using cotterless cranks in the early years of the twentieth century. The one I was riding today was made in 1907.
Stuart Tallack in West Sussex G.B.