Stuart Tallack wrote:
> Regarding QR hubs, I have asked before exactly what Campagnolo made
> in the
> early days. Did they buy in the hubs and make the axles and
> skewers? Or where
> they also contracted out? There must have been a point at which
> they became
> a manufacturer with a factory rather than a workshop for making
> prototypes.
> If this is in the Timeline, Chuck, I apologize. I couldn't find it.
Stuart,
There is hardly any info on how the early Campagnolo product was made. There is a small "vanity press" book called The Giant and the File by Gianni Brera that was printed in 1995 by Valentino Campagnolo to honor his father Tullio; charmingly written but does not provide much in the way of dates and locations.
The book does mention that Tullio created (not manufactured) all his inventions/creations in the back of his father's hardware store on Corso Padova in Vicenza with the aid of two vices and his hand files. And also many train trips to Brescia to visit the Brivio brothers, Fratelli Brivio or "FB", and returning with his two large suitcases filled with finished product (steel rod derailleurs, axles, quick releases, hubs?). This would be the period in the thirties up to the start of WWII I would imagine.
The rod derailleur wouldn't take a whole lot of fabrication since it consisted of toothed dropouts, splined axle, a quick release with a very long lever and a long shifting rod with handle at one end and a chain loop at the other, plus a clip to hold the shifting rod to the seat stay.
Timeline: Quick release patent Fegruary 1930, company started 1933, patent for rod derailleur May 1933, rod derailleur introduced August 1933, first employee 1940, Cambio Corsa (double rod) derailleur 1946, Paris-Roubaix (single rod) derailleur 1949, Gran Sport (parallelogram) derailleur 1951.
There is a photo of a 1947 company excursion (picnic?) with 37 employees pictured. By 1950 there are 123 workers. Looks to me like Tullio started manufacturing his own product beginning after the end of World War II in 1945.
Most of the above is complete conjecture on my part! Anyone care to contribute more info or different conjecture of their own?
Chuck Schmidt
South Pasadena, CA USA
http://www.velo-retro.com (reprints, t-shirts & timelines)