Silber and Fleming Catalogue 1880 (open to fishing tackle section)
Silber and Fleming Catalogue 1889 (open to fishing tackle section)

Days, more like.AshbyCut wrote: Thu Jul 11, 2024 9:19 pm What a splendid emporium !!!!! I could spend hours in a place like that !!!
True in this catalogue but this company was a wholesaler of anything. The number of items listed is massive and covers everything. I also note that the reels were sold by the dozen and I would think that specialist tackle shops were not the target market.Catfish.017 wrote: Sun Jul 14, 2024 7:16 am It’s quite clear from this that reels weren’t in common use at that time; dozens ( priced that way too!) of rods advertised but only two winches.
I should imagine they mean Bambusa vulgaris. I'm not a rod-maker, but I would imagine that some of the disadvantages of the species for most rod-making (not growing very straight, shorter distances between nodes) become less important when making a travel rod where each section is only 1' 4".Duckett wrote: Sat Jul 13, 2024 10:32 pm As something of a lover of travel rods, my eye was immediately drawn to the remarkable sounding 16 foot, 12 joint, common bamboo pocket rod in the 1889 catalogue. You’d need a fair sized pocket for that.
However, can anyone tell me what is meant by “common bamboo”?
Thanks for sharing the links Rod.
Phil
Thanks Rod.Rod Fisher wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 8:57 amI should imagine they mean Bambusa vulgaris. I'm not a rod-maker, but I would imagine that some of the disadvantages of the species for most rod-making (not growing very straight, shorter distances between nodes) become less important when making a travel rod where each section is only 1' 4".Duckett wrote: Sat Jul 13, 2024 10:32 pm As something of a lover of travel rods, my eye was immediately drawn to the remarkable sounding 16 foot, 12 joint, common bamboo pocket rod in the 1889 catalogue. You’d need a fair sized pocket for that.
However, can anyone tell me what is meant by “common bamboo”?
Thanks for sharing the links Rod.
Phil