The Mercury brand name was introduced by the Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company first as a high end bicycle in 1939 but after the war, for the low cost market. Sales must never have come up to expectations, the Mercury name was discontinued in 1952.
Murray had started as an automotive metal stamping company after WW1, moving into bicycles and pedal cars in the mid thirties, usually sold under the brand names of various retailers.
The company moved to Tennessee in the mid fifties and the design and manufacture of bicycles continued, being sold both under the Murray name and now by the discount retail chains. Lawn and garden equipment was added to the product line. New ownership in the eighties brought changes and after a US court ruled in 1996 that Chinese imports did not constitute a "material threat" to US manufacturers, domestic bicycle manufacturing ceased three years later. The company was acquired by Briggs and Stratton in 2004 and one year later the factory in Tennessee was closed.
2 comments:
Murray also produced Mercury tricycles in 1940. Styled after newly introduced Mercury automobiles I had one then.
Interesting to note that the 1937 range of Mercury bicycles was designed by Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky.
Post a Comment