"Ashtabula
One-piece cranks, like you commonly see on cheap American bikes and lower-end bmx bikes are "Ashtabula" cranks. The flat-bladed forks found on the old Schwinns are known as "Ashtabula forks", too.

Why? Well, for one thing, the older versions on the Schwinns were made in Ashtabula, Ohio, by the Ashtabula Bicycle parts Company. Their parts were so prevalent, back in the day, that the name Ashtabula became the generic name for such parts, much like "Kleenex" became the generic for facial tissue.

An odd little footnote in bicycling history: Ashtabula built one of the earliest (some say the first) complete bmx bikes available, in the mid-1970s.

While we now think of Ashtabula parts a cheap and heavy, but the actual "Ashtabula" parts were well-known for high quality and durability, back in the day. Of course, they were also heavy like a boat anchor..."

and
http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/ashtabula/90

They had a patent on a kickstand, too. http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3608929.html

Called the Ashtabula Bow Socket Company, you may have seen ABS stamped on a fork or crank.

Check out this monster PDF. In the middle is a blurb about the ABS, which went out of business in 1982.
http://ci.ashtabula.oh.us/parailroad.pdf

In a History of Ashtabula, it says: "On May 27, 1907 the Ashtabula Carriage Bow Company will no longer be known as that name. It will be known as the Ashtabula Bow Socket Company."
http://www.ashtabula200.com/1907.htm scroll down to part 9

Rudolf Henry Pfaff was president of ABS till he died in 1935. http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...www.google.com

Here is a map showing the ABS company on the left side of some railroad tracks: http://drc.ohiolink.edu/handle/2374.OX/64708

"... Ashtabula Bow Socket lost their product to history. You see, they started out by manufacturing “bow sockets” which were the attachments several generations earlier for the bows which held up the roof of buggys. Then as the market changed and shrank, they made the bows for convertible tops on cars. Then during the 60’s to 80’s they made bicycle cranks and frame parts."
http://raymondott.com/