Hall of Fame

 



sterling elliott

Year of Induction: 
2022
Year of Birth: 
1852
Immortal: 
Yes
Elected as Immortal: 
2021
Year of Death: 
1922
Biography: 

Sterling Elliott was born in Ortonville, Michigan in 1852. His ingenuity as an inventor had far-reaching impact on a diversity of arenas, including the world of harness racing. Elliott adapted the technology he had developed for bicycles into the sulkies used for harness racing. As a result, the application of this technology shattered harness racing’s previously existing world record times and established a new standard in harness racing for its era and beyond.

In 1875 Sterling Elliott moved to Boston, Massachusetts and established his first machine shop, where his inventions could be better manufactured and at a lower cost. In 1882 he relocated his shop to Watertown, Massachusetts and also opened a bicycle factory next door where he invented the quadricycle in 1886. In an adjacent shop were the Stanley Brothers, Freelan and Francis, who at the time were working on new photographic technology and would later go on to invent the Stanley Steamer automobile, based on Elliott’s quadricycle.

The Stanley Brothers owned trotters and raced them on the half-mile track in nearby Waltham’s Central Park. Elliott was working on a bicycle made of hickory wood and so became interested in the brothers’ high-wheeled racing sulkies. In 1892 he convinced the Stanleys to remove the wheels from one of their sulkies and adapted the frame to fit a pair of low bicycle wheels. Freelan Stanley tested the new sulky at Central Park. On the way to the track it rolled with a jerky motion over the streets, but once on the track the sulky moved smoothly and the horse showed more speed than he had produced on previous trials. One of the best features about the new sulky was that it did not skid on the turns like the high-wheel had done.

Encouraged by the test, Elliott went to work on the new sulky and built another one with a seat high enough so that the driver could see over the horse. It was a much lighter rig, and with ball bearings and pneumatic tires it was much easier to pull. On June 8, 1892, in Worcester, Massachusetts, the new sulky was tried out for the first time in an actual race. Pacer Alfred D. won in 2:29 ½, but the new bike created little enthusiasm among the local horsemen.

Allen Lowe, turf correspondent from the Boston Globe, saw the potential in the new sulky and succeeded in getting Elliott to ship one of them to horseman Budd Doble, who was urged to try the bike sulky with his trotting mare Nancy Hanks. Doble hesitated, convinced that Nancy Hanks, using the high wheels, could still beat the world record of 2:08 ¼ set by the mare Sunol the previous year. 

After fellow horseman E. F. “Pop” Geers successfully tried out the new sulky in a race, Doble was converted. On July 21, 1892, during the Detroit Driving Club’s meet at Michigan’s Hamtramck Course, Nancy Hanks was driven to break her record. She finished in 2:11 ¾, more than three seconds off her personal best.

Six-year-old Nancy Hanks began her assault on the world record in the lighter vehicle. Sunol and Allerton, her rivals of the previous year, had retired due to lameness and the mare had the 1892 field to herself. In Chicago, she dropped the mark to 2:07 ¼ and two weeks later lowered it to 2:05 ¼ on the kite track at Independence, Iowa. On September 28, 1892, at Terre Haute, Indiana, Nancy Hanks lowered the world record for the third time that year, finishing in 2:04 and becoming the first trotter to do a mile in 2:05 or better.

It wasn’t long before the high-wheeled sulky disappeared from the racing scene, and sulky factories were swamped with orders for the new version. Elliott had taken out five patents on his vehicle and many infringements were made, but he allowed the factories go ahead and make the sulkies as he was making a good profit in supplying the pneumatic wheels. 

Sterling Elliott would obtain more than 125 patents during his lifetime. He died in 1922 at the age of 70.