Historical Accounts of Ignaz Schwinn and Arnold, Schwinn & Co.

I have tried to find and read as many published works about Iganz Schwinn and Arnold, Schwinn & Co. from the 19th and first half of the 20th century as can be found. This includes bicycle trade magazines and motorcycle trade magazines. There have also been books which were published from 1945 onward.

In reading more recently published histories from this century and the late 20th century I have found several inaccuracies in the reporting of names and date of events from the life Ignaz Schwinn and early history of Arnold Schwinn & Co. when compared to contemporaneous news articles.

My observation is that most of the recent accounts of Ignaz Schwinn start with the book “50 Years of Schwinn Built Bicycles”, compiled by Frank W. Schwinn in 1945. The book contains some of the only information about Ignaz Scwhinn early life. However, this book was compiled more than 50 years after Ignaz Schwinn came to the United States of America. Some of the early history written in the book appears to be based upon memory and not upon documentation.

Contemporaneous account of the companies where Ignaz Schwinn worked and the development of Arnold, Schwinn & Co. can be found in bicycle industry trade magazines of the 1890s. These magazines are less subject to the haze of memory.

I believe that some of the name and date inaccuracies in recent publication stem from one source, the book “50 Years of Schwinn-Built Bicycles” published for Arnold, Schwinn & Co. in 1945.

In my opinion there are four, seemingly small, errors in “50 Years of Schwinn Built Bicycles”, that ultimately lead to later authors making incorrect assumptions about the history of Ignaz Schwinn and Arnold, Schwinn & Co.

The Four Errors

The first two errors are found on page 9 and are about names of companies that Ignaz Schwinn worked for and dates:

• Page 9. re: Hill & Moffat
  “He worked for a short time for the firm of Hill & Moffat, makers of the Fowler bicycle, . . .”
  Correction: Hill & Moffat did not exist, there was never any company by that name. Moffat Cycle Company started in January 1891 and ended in August 1892.
  Moffat Cycle Co. did not make the Fowler bicycle.
  Hill Cycle Manufacturing incorporated in October 1892, from the bankruptcy sale of Moffat Cycle Co.. Hill Cycle Mfg. made the Fowler bicycle.
• Page 9. re: International Manufacturing
  ” . . . and later designed the bicycles and planned and installed the bicycle factory
  of the International Manufacturing Company.
  The enterprise was not managed to his liking, and in 1894 he severed his connection with the International Company. ”
  Correction: International Manufacturing Company was organized in late October 1894. If Ignaz Schwinn severed his connection in 1894, it is hard to imagine that he did all the work listed and then quit in less than three months.
  It is more likely that he quit in August 1895. Ignaz Schwinn was probably frustrated by the lack of bicycle production. The Bearing 1895 August 22 report on International Mfg. after one year in operation.
  “Considerable trouble was experienced in getting material,
  so that its output has been limited to 2,500 wheels this year.”

Error three is found on page 28 and relates to the date of planning for Arnold, Schwinn & Co.

Page 28 re: Founding Arnold, Schwinn and Co.
" Ignaz Schwinn and Adolf Arnold had been busy since the fall of 1894
Making plans to build bicycles."
Correction: Arnold, Schwinn & Co. was incorporated about October of 1895. So the planning for the company took one year? The date fron "50 Years" of "fall of 1894" is unlikely. Ignaz Schwinn was organizing International MFG Co. at that time. A more likely date is the fall (or late summer) of 1895.

Error four is also a date error about the building of the Schwinn factory found on page 29.

Page 29 re: original factory building date and March=Davis bankruptcy
” . . . the present plant is built around and over the original building
erected in 1900.”

Correction: The March=Davis Bicycle Company had its final bankruptcy in 1901. The building of the original factory was after the March-Davis Cycle Co. bankruptcy auction. The factory could not have occurred in the year 1900. The original Schwinn factory was built beginning in late 1901 and completed in 1902. The 1901 October 23 edition of the Chicago Tribune had a short notice about the contract for the building being let.

Some later writers assume that the March=Davis Mfg. bankruptcy was in the year 1899. This assumption is incorrect and probably stems from the incorrect year for the building of the factory from “50 Years of Schwinn-Built Bicycles”. March=Davis Mfg.’s last bankruptcy was in 1901, after at least one previous bankruptcy in 1896.

One author that appears to make date assumptions is George Bushnell in “When Chicago was Wheel Crazy”, Chicago History, published by the Chicago Historical Society, by George Bushnell, Fall 1975. This publication is often cited in bibliographies of later authors.

More Recent Book Publications

Between the publication of “50 Years of Schwinn-Built Bicycles” and bankruptcy of the Schwinn Bicycle Company under the Schwinn Family Trust, I have not found any books about Schwinn. There are several books published after the Schwinn Family trust losses ownership of the Schwinn Bicycle Co.

Here is a list of some Schwinn books, all of which contain errors about dates or names of companies in the early history of Ignaz Schwinn.

• No Hands The Rise and Fall of the Schwinn Bicycle Company, an American Institution. 1996. By Judith Crown and Glenn Coleman.
• Schwinn Bicycles. 1996. By Jay Pridmore & Jim Hurd.
• Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2004. Based upon Chicago Historical Society publication noted above.
• American Excelsior, 2016, by Thomas Bund and Robert Turek.

Internet publication and Blogs

With the creation of the internet stories and blog posts about Ignaz Schwinn and Arnold, Schwinn & Co. abound. Much of the internet content proliferate the name and date errors that originate from “50 Years of Schwinn-Built Bicycles”.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated content

Artificial Intelligence: the name is false because there is no intelligence behind it. AI cannot fact check.

AI searches for and collects all documents about a given topic and synthesizes this into a condensed readable summary. AI does not correct errors and mistakes in the documents. Erroneous information is included in AI generated content. AI only serves to repeat and proliferate what has already been published. AI does not add any thing intelligent, correct errors, or explain (produce a bibliography) from whenced the “information” came.

There is at least one YouTube “documentary” about Arnold. Schwinn & Co. and it repeats many factual errors. In general you are best to ignore AI generated content about Arnold, Schwinn & Co.