"Carl Gonzalez" <bikecg@gmail.com> wrote:
> ABS (Ashtabula Bow Socket Company...dunno what a bow socket is; possibly
> OT) was the name of the company that made the bulletproof cranks. They
> were not part of Schwinn but I am sure counted on Schwinn for the lion-
> share of sales.
I know what a bow-socket is ... :-)
----------------
>From Dash Riprock (on the Schwinn Forum)
Ashtabula Bow Socket origin. . .Convertible tops.
My Grandfather retired from the Ashtabula Bow Socket. My father and Uncle also worked there for a time. It was in Ashtabula, Ohio. The only thing that remains is one very crumbling down old building. The rest is all gone.
The term "bow socket" refers to the invention of the two engineers's who started the company. The invention in 1927: the first automobile convertible top mechanism. Basically it was all those collapsing bars that forms the "roof" of a convertible top and that allows it to go up and down. The two inventor's names were: Fred K. Lewis and Lynn L. Roath. Both from Ashtabula, Ohio. The whole assembly was called the bow and socket.
After many years of forging American parts, pieces, and components for countless products, including all those stems, forks, and cranks, the Ashtabula Bow and Socket Company, (later shortened to just The Ashtabula Bow Socket), ceased to exist in 1979.
Ashtabula has a couple other famous historical car connections. The first Corvette, the 1953 model fiber glassed body was manufactured in a plant in Ashtabula. The name of the company slips my mind right now. . The other is Ransom E. Olds. Hes the originator of the Oldsmobile car company, later a division of General Motors (GM), and now phased out and into history. He was born in Geneva, Ohio in Ashtabula County.
Now you know. -----------------
Bob Hufford
Springfield, MO