So how could Shelby Steel Tube figure into the story of the Wright Brothers?īefore they were experimenting with airplanes, Orville and Wilbur made a living building bicycles, and when they opened their own manufactory in Dayton they were proud to advertise that their bikes had frames that were hand-made. It is common knowledge that American flight originated with the Wright Brothers, and it doesn’t take much research to discover that their famous groundbreaking flights left the ground in planes made of spruce wood, which was quite a bit lighter than steel. The plant had been constructed with funding raised by the people of Shelby and by 1900 it had become so profitable that the company paid its stockholders dividends of up to 116% ! The first equipment used in Shelby was made in England, but subsequently the essential parts were recreated by the Mansfield Machine Co.īy 1896, The Tuby had 700 employees turning out 1.5 million feet of seamless steel tube per month. Nearly all of it was used for bicycles, but as years developed they focused as well on high-pressure pipes for steam locomotives and other mechanical uses. The plant built in Shelby was nearly a replica of the Hudson & Gay plant in Birmingham, England, who sold them the secret process for making seamless tube. Within a few months the Shelby Steel Tube Company was cranking out 12,000 feet of seamless tube per week.Īll of that tube was turned into bicycles. So, in 1890 a bicycle maker from Toledo went to England to learn the secrets of how seamless tube was actually made, and when he brought the process back to America, his buddy convinced him to set up shop in his home town: Shelby, Ohio. There were dozens of steel mills around the nation, but not a single one of them had the machinery or technical know-how to make steel tube in one continuous piece.Īll American bicycle factories used seamless steel tube bike frames-but each of those frames came to them pre-fabricated, and they all came from England. To truly appreciate this story there is one other critical factor that must be understood: when 1890 was experiencing the incredible boom in bicycles, there was nowhere in America that made seamless steel tubing.Įach of those “safety bicycles” required nearly 20 feet of steel tube to construct its frame. On the right – 1895: Richard and Rick pose with their newfangled Safety bicycles. Tischler, captain of the Richland Ramblers, shows off his high wheel bicycle These new bikes were simple enough that kids could master them, so everybody wanted one and the bicycle industry exploded. Quite simply, the whole reason there is a steel tube plant in Shelby is because in 1890 people were crazy about bicycles.Īfter decades of watching cyclists spinning around the streets balanced way up on high wheel bikes, there was suddenly a new “safety bicycle” with two balanced wheels. This story begins and ends with bicycles, yet it’s really about aviation and Shelby’s steel mill, so, how does that work?
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