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Contents

[edit] Charles B. Franklin

Charles Bayly Franklin (Oct. 13, 1880, Belfast, Ireland - Oct. 19, 1932, Springfield, Massachusettes, United States) was an engineer and a motorcycle racer. He is most notable for designing motorcycles for the Indian Motocycle Company, including the original Scout of 1920, the original Chief of 1922, and the 101 Scout of 1928.[1] .[2] Prior to this, he had been part of the Indian motorcycle team that won first, second, and third place in the 1911 Isle of Man TT, finishing in second place.

[edit] Early life

Charles Franklin was born in Belfast, Ireland, to Lorenzo C. Franklin, an iron worker and ship fitter, and his wife, Anne Frances, neé Bayley.

In the mid-1890s, Lorenzo Franklin moved to Dublin and started a business in metal salvage. He prospered in this, and was thus able to send Charles to public school and eventually to an institution of higher education.

Franklin became an enthusiastic cyclist at school and used riding to exercise his lungs and assist in his recovery from pneumonia, which he had contracted at the age of 12.

In 1897, Franklin enrolled in electrical engineering at Dublin Technical College.[3] He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering in 1901.

[edit] Engineering and racing

By 1905, Franklin was the chief engineer of an electricity generating plant in Dublin. He began to compete in motorcycle races on the weekends.[4] As his fortunes improved, he began competing outside Ireland, notably in the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy where, in his first attempt in 1908, he finished sixth in the Single Cylinder class on a Chater-Lea motorcycle.

Franklin became interested in Indian motorcycles from the United States. Although his first attempt at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy on an Indian, in the 500 Single and 750 Twin class in 1910, resulted in his first non-finish in what would be his seven races there, he continued to race Indians thereafter.[5]

Franklin had his best finish at the Tourist Trophy in 1911, the year in which the Snaefell Mountain Course and the Senior class were introduced. He crossed the finish line third behind his teammate Oliver Godfrey and Charles Collier on a Matchless, but was promoted to second place when Collier was disqualified from the race. This provided Franklin with a second-place finish and the Indian works team for which he was riding with the first three places in the race.[6]

[edit] Dealership and emigration

In 1912, Franklin started to sell Indian motorcycles from his home as a side-line to his job at the generating plant. [7]

In 1915, two years after the resignation of Indian's first chief engineer Oscar Hedstrom, the company decided to begin employing professionally trained engineers. The UK distributor suggested Franklin and approacehd him with an offer. After initial reluctance, Franklin accepted the offer and emigrated to the United States in 1916.[8]

[edit] Career at Indian

Franklin's first task at Indian was to improve the performance of the Model L, a lightweight two-stroke motorcycle introduced in 1915. He attempted to improve the power by altering the porting sequence, but the results were unsuccessful and the Model L was discontinued in 1917.

Frankin then collaborated with chief engineer Charles Gustafson to redefine the flowmetrics of the Gustafson-designed Powerplus engine, which Indian built from 1915 to 1923 for use in their large motorcycles.[8]

[edit] Indian Scout

Before joining Indian, Franklin had formulated a design for a middleweight motorcycle with an engine-transmission unit instead of an external primary drive linking the engine to a separate transmission unit. [7] While at Indian, he showed these plans to Thomas Butler, a colleague in the sales department with an engineering degree. The plans had been refined by this time to include a strong cradle-type frame and a 37 CID (0.61 L) V-twin driving the integral transmission with helical-cut gears. Butler convinced Franklin to shorten the wheelbase from 60 in (1,524 mm) to 55 in (1,397 mm), to reduce the wheel size from 22 in (558.8 mm) to 20 in (508 mm), and to lower the frame. Butler convinced the board of directors at Indian to fund development of the new motorcycle[9].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum: 1923 Indian Big Chief
  2. ^ Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum: 1929 Indian 101 Scout
  3. ^ Sucher on Franklin: 1880 - 1932, part 1
  4. ^ Sucher on Franklin: 1880 - 1932, part 2
  5. ^ Franklin's Isle of Man race results
  6. ^ 1911 Isle of Man race review
  7. ^ a b Sucher on Franklin: 1880 - 1932, part 3
  8. ^ a b Sucher on Franklin: 1880 - 1932, part 4
  9. ^ Sucher on Franklin: 1880 - 1932, part 5


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[edit] Hubert Latham

Hubert Latham was the first person to alight an airplane on a body of water. He did so inadverently during an attempt to be the first person to cross the English Channel by air in a heavier-than-air craft.