Pope Manufacturing Company
Pope Manufacturing Company was one of the leading bicycle manufactures of the 19th century. Started by Albert Augustus Pope in 1878, the first factory was set up in Hartford, Connecticut. They began with the introduction of the famous “Columbia High wheeler” (the bicycle with the big front wheel). The company had brought so many new innovations in the area of bicycle manufacturing, promoting new technologies and inventions. Pope was the leading bicycle producer in the US till 1896.
It was in 1895 that Pope hired Hiram Percy Maxim to develop the company’s Columbia motor carriage. The Pope Motor Carriage department was born; so was the “Horseless Era”. ‘Mark I’ was the first series of electric-powered vehicles produced in the year 1896. It was redesigned and the new model was named Mark III. Gasoline-powered vehicles were also produced by the company, under the name Mark II. The bicycle production unit was shifted to Bartholomew Street and the Hartford unit became the centre for motor carriage production.
The success of Mark III lead to the production of a wide array of electric vehicles: the Opera bus, Omnibus, the Columbia Electric Victoria Mark V, the Columbia Electric Dos-a Dos Mark VI, the Mark XI Electric Delivery Wagon, the Victoria Runabout Mark XII, and the Mark XIX Surrey. The Motor Carriage Department manufactured all of them at the corner of Park and Laurel streets. Over a two year period, the company had built over 500 electric vehicles and 40 gasoline cars.
In the year 1899, Pope and William C. Whitney formed the Columbia Automobile Company. The company name was changed to Columbia and Electric Vehicle Company, one month later. It became the producer of hundreds of electric taxicabs which ran on the streets of New York City and many other major cities of the US.
Pope’s need to oversee the American Bicycle Company, a nation-wide federation of about 40 bicycle manufacturers, formed in 1900 in an effort to resuscitate and consolidate the slumping bicycle, made him sell the company. In the year 1900, Columbia Automobile Company was folded into New York-based, Whitney-controlled Electric Vehicle Company.
The same year, Hiram Percy Maxim joined the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, but returned to Hartford in 1903 as the chief engineer for the Electric Vehicle Company. The company continued to manufacture motor carriages in Hartford for a few more years, but allegations of over-capitalization and stock-watering manifested the public preference for gasoline-powered vehicles. But later in 1909, Maxim left the motor vehicle industry and founded the Maxim Silent Firearms Company.
The Electric Vehicle Company got involved in the famous Selden patent lawsuit against Henry Ford during these years. The company went into receivership in 1907. It emerged as the Columbia Motor Car Company in 1909. Next year itself, the Columbia Motor Car was obtained by the United States Motor Company, which went into receivership in 1912. The original Motor Carriage Department’s physical plant at Park and Laurel streets was purchased and expanded by the Billings & Spencer Company in 1915 for its use. Later on, the factory was demolished to make way for Interstate.
Pope and Maxim had played a major role in Hartford’s industrial history as pioneers of the electric motor carriage. Theirs was the dominant firm in the electric vehicle (or motor carriage) industry.
- Devu Narayanan
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