- Frank Bowden
Company.
When Bowden was 24 when he made a fortune in the
stock market . When he returned fromHong Kong he was seriously ill. His doctor gave him six months to live. Bowden took upcycling on his doctor's advice. After recovering he bought Messrs Woodhead, Angois and Ellis, the company in Raleigh Street, Nottingham, from which he purchased hisbicycle . It was making three bicycles a week. Production rose and three years later Bowden needed a bigger workshop, which he found in a four-storey building in Russell Street. He changed the company's name to Raleigh Cycles to commemorate the original address. By 1896 it was the largestbicycle manufacturer in the world and occupied seven and a half acres in Faraday Road, Nottingham.Bowden has been popularly accredited with inventing the
Bowden cable in 1902, replacing rigid rods used until then for brakes with a wound cable. The Bowden cable meant brakes could be worked by calipers, as is now standard, rather than by rod pulling the brake blocks up against the rim. More significantly the invention on the Bowden cable has also been credited to Ernest Monnington Bowden who received a patent in 1896, and George Frederick Larkin who received a patent in 1902. [cite web
url = http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5765447-description.html
title = Patent Storm: Mechanical cable system having a bellows seal
accessdate = 2008-02-07] [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=307-larkin&cid=0 National Archives, National Motor Museum, George Larkin Collection] ]He wrote "Cycling for Health and Points For Cyclists" in 1913. [www.yourtotalevent.com/Sale/Sale.htm] . In 1915 he was created a Baronet, of the City of Nottingham on 23 June 1915. He became a Fellow of the
Royal Geographical Society and a Justice of the Peace. [Mosley, Charles Mosley (ed), Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 458. ] Bowden married Amelia Frances, daughter of Alexander Houston, in 1879. He died in April 1921, aged 73, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son Harold. Lady Bowden died in 1937.References
* [http://www.angeltowns.com/town/peerage/ Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page]
* [http://www.thepeerage.com/ www.thepeerage.com]External links
* [http://www.raleighbikes.com/ Raleigh Bikes]
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