Sheldon Brown just described a typical German black roadster from the thirties, with the knurled knob steering damper and all, and most unluckily it´s a Torpedo. It´s very likely that it was made by the
Torpedo cycle works in Frankfurt which were completely unrelated to the
Fichtel and Sachs people who made the Torpedo rear hubs which were also
available in a racing version, the "Renntorpedo". I guess someone forgot to register a brand at some time.
The steering damper was typical for pre-WWII roadster cycles and was only used post-WWII by Triumph, Nuremberg, as far as I know. They have
a friction band that encircles the fork column. Very useful thing to have on unpaved roads.
The German bikes Sheldon describes which were fitted with Thompson pressed in bearing cups in the b/b really were the cheapest of the cheap. Duting the eighties they were called "brand new bulky refuse". The Torpedo bike is likely to be of much higher quality and was designed to withstand decades of hard use. Wholesale catalogues list universally fitting spares for this type of bike to this day. When shopping I regularly meet an elderly woman who rides a ca. 1938 Torpedo/Frankfurt ladies roadster on which nothing but the frame and the chainset now is original and which she bought used in 1952. Beat that, Mr Schwinn!
Regards, Toni Theilmeier, Belm, Germany.