BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Folks, People might be interested to know that the early history of bicycles in the US has a storyline that started near Pittsburgh with a company called Eclipse Bicycles. They were a pretty big deal back in the day. They also happen to have employed my great grandfather Charles McPherson, who was a mechanic and designer for Eclipse. Eclipse moved to Elmira NY sometime in around 1890 and became famous there, especially because they patented the coaster brake (or owned the patent -- some guy named Farrow was the inventor I think). They especially advertised the strength of their bikes. Scans of the 1898 catalog can be found online and are a fun read -- here is page 22 of one version http://www.nostalgic.net/1898-eclipse-bicycles-catalog/catalog-1898-eclipse-22 We wonder whether they guy on the right let go after the photo was finished... Note that the signatures on the bottom of the page include at the bottom "Chas H McPherson - General Inspector". That's my mother's grandfather. He was famous around Elmira for having welded together two frames to make a 4-wheeler that carried his fairly large family, and also for making many wheeled devices to help one of his daughters, who was disabled. I have no record of why Eclipse left Beaver Falls, or how well established they were when they did. They trove until roughly the depression and eventually were bought out by Bendix I think, basically because that coaster brake patent was worth a lot. Charlie's cousin Thomas Channing McPherson (that would be my first cousin thrice removed) was a noted industrialist, co-founder of the Keystone Wire Matting Company. McPherson Boulevard in Point Breeze North is named after him and when my parents moved to Pittsburgh in the early 50s my mother would visit two sisters -- probably her 2nd cousins once removed -- who still lived on the street. It is also possible they were TC's sisters.