Since 1884 the community of Coventry has displayed a granite monument to Starley featuring his profile, carvings of two of his bicycles, and a statue of Fame on top. The monument is unusual in that the statue of Fame is only a quarter of the height of the whole memorial, so as not to deflect too much attention from the subject of the monument, the bicycle inventor, James Starley.
It was unveiled in November 8th 1884. It was made by Joseph Whitehead and Sons.
A magazine of the time (Our Monthly Record) describes the opening in the following words:
"The mayor of Coventry, England, unveiled the
memorial to James Starley, the inventor of the
improved bicycle, in the presence of eight thousand
people, in November. From the improvements
made by Mr. Starley have been evolved
others which have made the cycle industry so immense.
The memorial is described as a beautiful
work of art, standing twenty feet in height. It is
a figure of Fame in marble. On the front of the
pedestal is a medallion portrait of Mr. Starley,
and on the sides are illustrations of the inventions
which he introduced."
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The statue was damaged during the Second World War and was only restored in 1979. After a long campaign by Starley’s great grandson and interested locals. By the 1970s Starley's statue had fallen into disrepair. Starley's nose and Fame's arms were broken off. With years of organic growth and carbon stains from traffic fumes, the marble statue of Starley had begun to look tired. In 2006, as part of a city-wide restoration project, Coventry City Council commissioned EcoLogic to return the statue to its former glory.
Informaion on James Starley:-
James Starley was born April 21, 1831, into an agricultural family. His father, Daniel Starley, was a farmer in Albourne, Sussex, England. When he was nine years old, Starley began working on the family farm, but, dissatisfied with farming, he set off on foot for London in 1846. There, he found work as a gardener and put his spare time to use cranking out inventions, including the adjustable candlestick, a one-stringed window blind, and a mechanical bassinet. He married Jane Todd on September 22, 1853, and had three sons, James, John Marshall, and William.
Sewing Machine Advances and Bicycle Prototypes:
Around 1855 Starley got a job with Newton Wilson in London, where he worked on sewing machines. Within a few years, he moved to Coventry to work as foreman of the Coventry Sewing Machine Company. Starley spent the next dozen or so years working out improvements to the early sewing machine, including his own invention, "The European." His inventions, many of which were patented, survive in the workings of modern sewing machines.
In 1868 Starley saw his first bicycle, a French velocipede. Bicycles had been around since 1818, but the earliest two-wheeled, rider-propelled machines were rudimentary, requiring the rider to use his own feet to move the wooden monster along. The bicycle Starley encountered had cranks attached to the front wheel, which the rider could use to propel the machine. These early bicycles weighed as much as 160 pounds and had solid rubber tires and ball bearings.
Foreshadowing their future success in bicycle design, development, and sales (of which the Coventry region would eventually become a national leader), the Coventry Sewing Machine Company became the Coventry Machinists' Company in 1869 after worker Rowley B. Turner convinced management to produce bicycles. The company manufactured 400 bicycles for sale in France, but the outbreak of the Franco-German War made such export impossible, and so it turned to England for its market. Thus, Starley shifted his creative inventing energy from sewing machines to bicycles, seeking to improve the machines, first aiming to reduce the massive weight and clumsiness of the velocipedes, which had earned the nickname of "boneshakers." Within a few years, Starley had invented the "C Spring and Step Machine," or the Coventry Model, and secured his place as the father of the modern bicycle.
The Coventry bicycle featured a curved spring seat, a mounting step, and a small hind wheel. Next, Starley developed a bicycle with a smaller still rear wheel and large front wheel, both fashioned from iron and wire spokes. This creation was tagged the "penny-farthing," after England's smallest and largest copper coins. Its major improvement was a gear that turned the wheel twice for every revolution of the pedals, cutting the riders' work in half.
Bike Advances and the Masterpiece
Improving further on his initial designs, Starley invented the Ariel bicycle. After leaving the Coventry Machinists' Company in 1870, he went into business for himself and began producing his Europa sewing machines and Ariel bicycles. Historians consider the Ariel, a lightweight all-metal bicycle first sold in 1871, to be the first true bicycle. It was the first self-propelled two-wheeler to use pivot-center steering, which gave the bicycle the ability to turn, a leap in technology from the forward and reverse movements that limited the earlier wooden machines.
Next, Starley introduced what was to be his most significant contribution to bicycle advancement. His Tangent bicycle, introduced in 1874, was the first to feature alternating spokes. Starley's original wheels arranged the spokes in a straight line. Alternating spokes connected the spokes to the hub at an angle, easing the stress on individual spokes and making the wheels far stronger than earlier models. Starley's tensioned spoke wheels are found, virtually unmodified to this day, on nearly every contemporary bicycle. The Tangent bicycle weighed in at about 50 pounds, although 21-pound custom-made racing versions were soon available.
In 1876 Starley produced the Coventry Tricycle, a successful new invention that featured a double-throw crank, chains that drove the bike's wheels, and a rack. Combining all of his previous advancements into one four-wheeled machine, Starley next produced the Salvo which many of his contemporaries believed to be his creative masterpiece.
Starley's nephew John Kemp Starley "went on to design the Rover Safety Cycle, which has formed the basis of the shape of the bicycle ever since," wrote Anthony Hopker in the Coventry Evening Telegraph. The Rover, introduced in 1885, featured a triangular frame, equal-sized wheels, and chain drives. Manufacture of the Rover launched Coventry into the forefront of bicycle production. Starley's sons, James, John Marshall, and William, carried on the family business as Starley Brothers, a cycle manufacturing outfit.
James Starley died on June 17, 1881, in Coventry, Warwickshire. Among his lasting contributions is the reputation of Coventry as the cradle of bicycle production.
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