# Push-pull: Doodle Bug ? Irish Mail ?



## Rob (Mar 27, 2016)

Hello, Wondering if anyone here can help me pin down the year and any other detail on this bike ? I note the pulley and drive belt are on the left on the Irish mail pictures Sulley posted in 2013. but the Doodle Bug is on the right. I also notice the loop bars attach farther forward than the one in this thread: http://thecabe.com/forum/threads/vintage-3-wheel-push-pull-cart.39081/

Any help would be appreciated !


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## filmonger (Mar 27, 2016)

Thats a nice one...... Irish mail scooters are interesting.


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## Rob (Mar 27, 2016)

Thanks for the reply - So it is an Irish Mail ? 

Any insight on the pulley being on the left as opposed to all the others I've seen where the pulley is on the right ? 

Any idea of year ? 

Appreciate the help


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## filmonger (Mar 27, 2016)

Irish Mail is a term - more than a manufacturer ...... Based on the belt drive - I think yours looks more like the Doodlebug above. The nonmotorized riding toy's official name was "Doodlebug Spe-da-way." It was made during the 1930s and '40s by Beckley-Ralston Co. of Chicago. It could be adjusted as a child grew and was billed as a "physical developer." I am sure one of the pedal car guys might know more about this subject.

Lots of the peddle car manufacturers offered a version of the Irish mail. There are other terms used to describe this kind of cart. Irish Mail being one of the main terms.

This is from the internet. You most likely will have seen it.

I am not sure how the terminology "Irish Mail" came to be. One explanation I have seen is that the terminology came from railroad handcars or velocipedes. Railroad work camps were highly populated by Irish immigrants, so maybe the word "Irish" came from that. Perhaps the terminology goes back to the train, the Irish Mail, from the 1800's that delivered mail in Ireland. In Germany "Irish Mails" are called "Dutch Mails." I have also heard them called that in the U.S. A neighbor's elderly mother once told me that she remembered mailmen delivering mail with Irish Mails in Baltimore when she was a child. They had boxes attached at the backs of the seats for carrying the mail. Irish Mails were popular children's toys in the early 1900's.

When I was a youngster my brother and I shared an Irish Mail. The Irish Mail stayed in the family and my children rode it when they were little. My youngest, when he had his leg in a cast, cruised around town on the Irish Mail. That would be faster and more fun than crutches or a wheelchair. The original family Irish Mail was damaged in a fire, and I found it easier and cheaper to buy a replacement on ebay rather than to continue the process of trying to restore it. Here is the Irish Mail I bought on ebay. It is similar to the family Irish Mail. It is from about 1900 and all original, including the original leather tires:

Interest seemed to be diminishing, perhaps because of the cost, before the Great Depression, and the major manufacturer Hill-Standard finally went out of business during the depression. Irish Mails never returned to the popularity they once enjoyed, and still deserve. Thanks to Dr. Marcio Ferez perhaps these marvelous vehicles will make a comeback.

here is another article form the net.....

By Beth Oljace

Anderson Public Library

One afternoon in 1902, while riding the interurban home to Anderson from Indianapolis, Hugh Hill saw a little boy on a sidewalk pumping a small, wheeled toy with his feet.

As he watched the child he became intrigued with an idea for a child’s toy that would be propelled by pumping it with the arms.  In his home workshop, he tested ideas and finally came up with toy that had a long, rectangular seat, four wheels and a handle to pump the toy along.

He asked his 4-year old son, Robert, to test it for him and they went outside.  Robert pumped the toy up and down the sidewalk easily. As the test came to an end, a man approached Hill and told him he would like to buy the toy for his own son. Hill happily sold his prototype to the man, probably because he already knew he would be making more toys. A lot more toys.

Hugh Hill was born in Ohio in 1862, but his father moved the family to Anderson when Hugh and his brother were two. Hill was one of triplets, one of whom did not survive childhood; another, his brother Ernest, who was one of his business partners.

Hugh’s father, Jasper Hill, became part of a foundry business that made agriculture equipment. Hugh graduated from Anderson High School and went through a series of jobs with various machinery companies in Anderson and other Midwestern cities, the last of which was the chief engineer for the Illinois Insane Asylum at Kankakee.

The Irish Mail

In 1888, his wanderlust temporarily sated, he came back to Anderson and joined his father and his brothers to form the Hill Machine Company. For the next 14 years, Hill played with a series of inventions and the Hill family developed a pump manufacturing company (called Hill-Tripp and then Hill Pump) and Hugh Hill developed several tools, both original patents and improvements on existing models. To market his inventions, he formed a company called Hill Tool in 1900.

Hill’s new toy — literally and figuratively — changed everything. He formed another company, Standard Manufacturing, to handle the manufacturing of new toy. The toy needed a name and the company decided to call it the Irish Mail, after the Irish Mail train, the fastest train in the world at that time.

The new toy was instantly popular.  The Irish Mail was especially a boy’s toy.  Pumped with the arms and steered with the feet, it took some skill and strength to run it properly.  Compared to it, a tricycle (a girl’s toy) was for sissies.

Within a few years, Hill merged his two companies to form the Hill-Standard Company, which continued to market tools for a while, but was soon completely given over to toys.

In 1910, the company began to manufacture their own toy wheels and became one of largest producers of light wheels in the world.  More models followed. A Ben Hur racer looked vaguely like a chariot. An Irish Mail with a shortened seat and a truck bed was called the Irish Mail Delivery. There was a tandem Mail for two.

The company added a line of scooters and, later on, playground equipment.  Branch factories in Kokomo and Toledo, Ohio were opened to help with demand.  The Irish Mail was sold worldwide; Hugh Hill took great pleasure in travelling to Europe and South America and introducing his toys there.

Inventive entrepreneur

Like many of his contemporaries, Hugh Hill found time to be involved in multiple enterprises.  He was on the board of the at least one bank, had an financial interest in a chemical company in Kokomo and found time to run for mayor of Anderson in 1912 with the campaign slogan, “Elect the man who made a million children happy.” He was defeated in the primary by Oswald Ryan, who was defeated in the general election by Jesse “Hick” Mellett.

Hill-Standard’s heyday was the early 1920’s. The company had just added a line of playground equipment and they won a Gold Medal at the Brazillian International Toy Exposition for the best display and for the Irish Mail.

The company was producing 4 million light wheels a year and estimated that it had sold over 1.5 million Irish Mails in a 20-year period. Unfortunately, tastes and times change. The Hill-Standard Company did not survive the Depression and went out of business in Anderson in the mid-30’s.  Hugh Hill retired from manufacturing and remained in Anderson. He died in 1948.

Today, Irish Mails are much sought-after collectibles. Also, it looks like Hill had a good idea in 1902.  The pump action drive with the arms that his toys required is good exercise for the heart. Not only did Hugh Hill make children happy; he helped to make them healthy.

Beth Oljace works in the Indiana Room at Anderson Public Library. She can be reached at boljace@yahoo.com





Her is a picture of one similar - VINTAGE DOODLE BUG CHILD'S PEDAL / PUMP CAR: Child's riding toy, belt drive. All original including tires & belt. shows use. Original paint decal reads "Doodle Bug Spe-da-way Beckley-Ralston, Chicago". 37" long X 19" wide at front X 21" tot top of pump handle.


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## Rob (Mar 27, 2016)

Fantastic - Thank you very much for your time and for sharing this knowledge. 

If I read this right then; Hill Standard started the design and production. Others made these toys which were sold and became known broadly as an "Irish mail". Specific brand names included Doodle Bug ? Who were the other manufacturers ? 

Any idea of the age of what I have ? 

Thanks again, Rob


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