Classic & Vintage - Seatposts from the 30s?

Hi all,

I stupidly gave away the seatpost that came with my Macleans, primarily because it didn't fit very well (too small) I'm now stuck with the problems of a) not knowing exactly what size it should take, and b) steel or aluminum alloy?

With the help of some inside calipers and trial and error, I think I have a handle on a), but when I find the right size, would alloy be completely out of the question? As far as I know, some alloy stuff was available during the late 30s, but did this include seatposts?

Thanks

Just sticking my neck out with a simple guess: I reckon that early aluminum was both expensive and very soft, so a critical piece like a seatpost would be made of reliable steel. At least until it had been around long enough for the engineers and metalurgists to learn what to alloy with it to make alloys like "Duraluminum", AKA Dural, and I believe that came along post WW2. I fully expect that somebody who really knows will correct/expound on my theory.

HAH, just beat myself to the punch...and so I get to flame myself a bit. I did a quick look at the history of aluminum on the web and it seems that Dural is the first of the 2000 series of alloys and developed VERY early in the 20th century. Alloys developed in WW2 and after were some 6000 and mostly the 7000 series. Clearly that doesn't really answer your question as I can't find examples of AL alloy seatposts from the '30s, but theoretically they are possible.

Thanks for your thoughts. I figured steel was the safe bet, but there are so many aluminum posts out there, it would just be so much easier to go that route!

I have a few 30's bikes, the majority of the state side bikes Westfields, Champion, Hawthorne and so on used a seat post that looked like a No. 7, and switched to a straight seat post around the late 40's or so, I have a 39-45' Silver Westfield Lady version called a Corsair w/that seat post and about 20 springs in the seat very comfy.