Charles Metz built the Oriten, a unique and
distinctive bicycle, in 1896 for the Orient Bicycle Company in Waltham,
Massachusetts. The company took it on tour throughout the country to its
many dealers and bicycle races in a promotional effort to gain public
attention for its bikes with the hope to increase sales. This was the
time, near the end of the nineteenth century, when the public became
highly interested and attracted to the bicycle as a new method of
personal transportation. It was common to find bicycle clubs in
communities, such as the Wheelmen in Bloomsburg, and bicycle racing had
become a very popular event.
An unknown photographer in Berwick took this picture
of the Oriten and its ten riders in front of John N. Harry’s bicycle
and harness shop at 111 West Front Street in 1898. Fortunately, there is
information that can briefly identify eight of these men. Four were
brothers: John H. Harry, 32, proprietor; James A. Harry, 29, a
machinist; Charles Harry, 19, bicycle repairman; and George F. Harry,
17, laborer. Four others included Ralph Laubach, 17, hardware store
clerk; Edward Averill, 23, ice dealer; Bruce Kepner, 23, molder; and
Charles Brittain, 24, an employee in the A.C.F. rolling mill. No
additional information could be found for William F. McMichael and Edwin
Schenk.
The Oriten still exists today as part of the Henry
Ford Museum collection at Dearborn, Michigan. This unusual bicycle
weighing 305 pounds is twenty-three feet long. It has no breaks or
gears. The sizes of the ten sprockets are all different, with the
smallest in the front and the largest at the rear. One account reported
the bike under ideal conditions could attain a speed of forty-five
m.p.h. There was even a short silent film made in 1897 about the Oriten
reaching a high rate of speed on the Charles River track in the Boston
area. Today, in Waltham, the Watch City Brewing Company produces a
Belgian Pale Ale called an Oriten Ten-Seater Ale.
