REMEMBER IT?

What the Boating World Was Talking About Twenty-five Years Ago, as Shown by Items in the January, 1907, copies of MOTORBOAT
(as reported in a January, 1932 issue of MOTORBOAT)

THE Motor Boat Show season of I907 opened early — about as early as could have been possible. The Chicago Show opened in the Coliseum in that city at 3 o’clock on the afternoon of New Year’s Day. It is interesting to note the exhibitors represented in that show of a quarter of a
century ago, and to observe that a goodly proportion of them are still active factors in the industry, either under the same name or in the hands of direct successors. Among the boats there were exhibits of the Gas Engine and Power Company and Charles L. Seabury & Co., Consolidated; the W. H. Mullins Company; The Matthews Company; Electric Launch Company; Michigan Steel Boat Company; Monarch Boat -Company; Detroit Boat Company; Oshkosh Boat Company and the Pope Boat Company. The motor exhibits included the following makes: Gray, Monarch, Ferro Automarine, Ralaco, Speedway, Brown-Cochrane, Termaat & Monahan, Holliday, Regal, Doman, Lamb, Phillips and Brownell Trebert. The leading displays of accessories were those of C. D. Durkee & Co., of New York, and George B. Carpenter & Co., of Chicago.

In the story of the show this point was made prominent: “The float feed carburetor was omnipresent, the vaporizer having practically disappeared, but it was offered optionally by one motor manufacturer.” Also note this point: “In the matter of lubrication the gravity feed, with multiple sight feed lubricator was in the majority for four-cycle engines, but the exhaust pressure feed system and the mechanical lubricator are also used. An oil pump, direct connected to the motor was also shown.

A School of Motorboating was opened in New York City by the West, Side Y. M. C. A. Among the instructors were T. E. Ferris, Carl T. Forster, John Friebel, H. Newton Whittelsey and Alfred E. Luders.

Among new members elected to the Motor Boat Club of America were these: George S. Graham, Eugene A. Riotte, A. E. Luders, Walter M. Bieling, George S. Macdonald, Thomas Fleming Day, Martin C. Erisman, while James Gordon Bennett was elected an honorary member.

A motor boat carnival was announced to take place on Lake Worth. at Palm Beach, Florida, January 29 to February 2, with rather pretentious program. The racing was to be handled by a committee composed of W. Gould Brokaw, Lieut. Hugh L. Willoughby, J. S. Clark, W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., A. D. Proctor-Smith, James K. Clarke, H. L. Bowden and George E. Andrews.

The Thousand Islands Y. C. has entered a challenge for the A. P. B. A. Gold Cup, held at the time by the Chippewa Bay Y. C.

It was announced that the National Motor Boat Show in New York to be held in the old Madison Square Garden from February 19 to 26, would be separate from the Sportsman’s Show, with which it had been associated for the past two years.

An interesting article from the pen of the late Frederic S. Nock bore the heading, “The Doom of the Small Steam Yacht,” and pointed out the greater efficiency, economy and comfort of the motor propelled craft.

An editorial entitled “Plantomania” warned against
manufacturers overbuilding because of too great enthusiasm as to the immediate future. To quote th& final paragraph: “You’ve always got to be prepared for a quake of some kind. When Vesuvius goes to sleep, something else wakes up.” In view of the fact that a panic followed within a few months, the depression of I907, which affected people about as has the recent period, Frank Prial, the editor who wrote that editorial, appears to have had unusual foresight. Yet we find that most of the industry survived to prosper soundly in the years then to come.

The Ferro Machine & Foundry Company, of Cleveland, announced that it had contracted to supply five hundred Ferro motors to the W. H. Mullins Company for use in steel boats to be built for the 1907 season at the Mullins shops at Salem, Ohio.

The Matthews Boat Company, recently moved into its new plant at Port Clinton, Ohio, announced that it occupied buildings having a total floor space of 65,000 sq. ft., equipped with the latest machinery, all operated electrically.