bicycle and automobile manufacturing fate defunct founded 1876 founder albert augustus pope headquarters hartford connecticut united states area served united states products bicycles motorcycles automobiles automotive parts website www.columbiamfginc.com pope manufacturing company was founded by albert augustus pope around 1876 in boston massachusetts and incorporated in connecticut in 1877 . manufacturing of bicycles began in 1878 in hartford connecticut at the weed sewing machine company factory . pope manufactured bicycles motorcycles and automobiles . from 1905 to 1913 pope gradually consolidates manufacturing to the westfield mass plant . the main offices remain in hartford ct. it ceased automobile production in 1915 and ceased motorcycle production in 1918 . bicycles continued to be made available under the columbia brand . contents 1 early years 2 bicycles 2.1 imports and the first columbias 2.2 redesigning the ordinaries 2.3 safety bicycles 2.4 hartford cycling company 2.5 steel tubing 2.6 hartford rubber works 3 motorcycles 4 mopeds 5 automobiles 6 bankruptcy and reorganizations 7 see also 8 references 9 further reading 10 external links early years edit pope manufacturing company was listed in the 1876 boston city directory located at 54 high street . in march 1877 the company drafted incorporation documents in connecticut naming albert pope charles pope and edward pope as shareholders . at the time of incorporation albert pope held 595 shares his father charles held 400 shares and his cousin edward held five shares . 1 the incorporation documents stated the company s intended business activities to make manufacture and sell and licence to others to make manufacture and sell air pistols and guns darning machines amateur lathes cigarette rollers and other patented articles and to own sell and deal in patents and patent rights for the manufacture thereof . 1 pope manufacturing company was already selling air pistols and cigarette rolling machines . 2 though pope manufacturing had filed for incorporation in connecticut it continued to base its offices and many of its operations in boston . 3 albert and edward pope operated a factory at 87 summer street in boston as early as 1874 for the production of hand held cigarette rolling machines . 4 bicycles edit imports and the first columbias edit illustration of pope manufacturing company from frank leslie s 1885 advertisement for the columbia brand columbia ordinary circa 1886 cliff . albert pope started advertising imported english bicycles for sale in march 1878 . his initial investment in the pope manufacturing company was 3 000 usd or worth about 125 000 in the early 21st century . he invested about 4 000 in 1878 to import about fifty english bicycles . in may 1878 he met with george fairfield president of weed sewing machine company . albert pope was inquiring about manufacturing his own brand of bicycles proposing a contract with weed to build fifty bicycles at its plant in hartford connecticut on behalf of pope manufacturing . albert pope had ridden an imported excelsior duplex model penny farthing to the meeting which fairfield inspected . at that time sewing machines were selling poorly so fairfield accepted the contract . 5 in september 1878 weed sewing machine company built the last of the fifty bikes under the first contract . albert pope chose the brand name columbia for the first high wheelers produced by pope manufacturing . these first machines copied from the excelsior duplex model were made from seventy seven parts that were made in house and only the rubber tires purchased from a supplier . pope manufacturing sold all its bicycles from the first production run . in 1879 production and sales were around 1 000 the last year of the excelsior duplex copies . 6 george herbert day worked as a clerk at weed sewing machine company when the company started producing high wheelers for pope manufacturing . in early 1879 day was promoted to corporate secretary . one historian characterized day as albert pope s right hand man in hartford between 1878 and 1899 . 7 albert s cousin edward started work as the pope manufacturing bookkeeper in 1880 . 8 george bidwell and independent salesman from buffalo new york purchased an imported excelsior duplex high wheeler from pope . learning in a correspondence from pope that he would be producing his own bicycle bidwell starting taking orders for the columbias . bidwell sold seventy five of the machines holding down payments for each . pope could only deliver about twenty five . shortly later pope hired bidwell as superintendent of agencies a job sending bidwell on the road to teach sale agents the art of promotion . bidwell taught agents how to promote the sport through riding halls and schools . 9 redesigning the ordinaries edit in 1880 george fairfield introduced design changes and proposed two ordinary columbia models . each weighed about forty one pounds and featured an improved seat spring and an improved head adjustment . the standard columbia with a forty eight inch wheel was introduced in 1880 priced at 87.50 . the special columbia offered a closed stanley style head a built in ball bearing assembly and full nickel plating for 132.50 . 10 in 1881 pope gained controlling interest of weed catalyzing a fifteen fold increase in weed s stock price . george day was promoted to president of weed . 11 after the introduction of the high wheeler pope bought pierre lallement s original patent for the bicycle and aggressively bought all other bicycle patents he could find amassing a fortune by restricting the types of bicycles other american manufacturers could make and charging them royalties . 12 he used the latest technologies in his bicycles inventions such as ball bearings in all moving parts and hollow steel tubes for the frame and he spent a great deal of money promoting bicycle clubs journals and races . 12 safety bicycles edit columbia model 40 mens safety bicycle 1895 columbia model 41 ladies safety bicycle 1895 ordinaries high wheelers or penny farthings were driven by cranks and pedals attached directly to an oversized front wheel . the rider was seated over the wheel just aft of the wheel hub . many mishaps included the projection of the rider head first over the handle bars an event occurring with enough frequency earn the name header . several manufacturers created safety models which denoted a low mount bicycle . motive force came from cranks applied to a sprocket and chain creating an indirect drive to one of the wheels . the first commercially viable model was john kemp starley s rover drawing interest starting in 1885 . the early rover featured a complicated indirect steering system but starley replaced it with a direct steering system consisting of a single curved bar attached to the head . in 1886 after seeing some rovers and touring a rover factory alfred pope claimed that the safety bicycle was nothing more than a fad and made no plans at that time to produce his own version . george bidwell by this time an independent agent again recommended the safety after trying the mount in 1886 . 13 he urged pope to design its own safety bicycle while predicting the old high wheel was doomed . 14 however pope did offer a safety ordinary model in 1886 . this design retained the high mount and oversized front wheel but incorporated a chain drive to the front wheel allowing the seating position and cranks to be positioned further back . despite the new columbia offering bidwell claimed that he never ordered another high wheeler after trying the rover . by 1888 pope had reversed course and produced its own safety the veloce . it weighed fifty one pounds or fifteen pounds heavier than its ordinary . in 1889 ordinaries only accounted for twenty percent of sales dropping to ten percent of sales the next year . once pope offered the veloce for sale the company sold only 3 000 ordinaries through 1891 . 15 pope manufacturing was an innovator in the use of stamping for the production of metal parts . until 1896 the company was the leading us producer of bicycles . hartford cycling company edit at a time when pope charged 125 for a columbia overman wheel company was marketing a bicycle for wage workers who might earn 1 per day . instead of reducing cost and price on the columbias pope decided to produce a separate line to compete with overman . 16 around 1890 pope started another manufacturer hartford bicycle company in order to create a new line with a mid price niche . he installed his cousin george to run the plant . he transferred david j. post from weed to serve as secretary for hartford . mit graduate harry pope albert s nephew was hartford s superintendent . 16 17 pope manufacturing subsumed hartford cycle company in 1895 . 18 steel tubing edit ordinaries had used a heavy pipe but the safeties used twenty seven feet of tubing solid tubes would weigh down the machine . safeties required thin high strength steel tubing . almost all the pope manufacturing facilities were located in hartford in an area previously known for gun making . like bicycles rifle barrels required thin high strength tubes so the skills and processes of rifle manufacturing were related to the manufacturing of steel tubing for safety bicycles . importing tubes cost an american manufacturer a forty five percent import tariff thus creating a financial incentive for domestic production . the sudden popularity of safety bicycles in the united states created a shortage of tubing supply for manufacturers both in europe and the united states . albert pope had invested in shelby steel tubing even while building two steel tubing factories in hartford owned by pope manufacturing . one was an experimental facility and the other for commercial production . 19 two pope employees henry souther and harold hayden eames collaborated on a new process for producing bicycle tubing . souther had been experimenting with stress tolerances of different metals and concluded that steel with five percent nickel alloy would be ideal for bicycle tubing . at the time this metal was only available in sheet form . eames devised a process for converting metal sheets into billets which could be cold drawn through dies with methods and equipment already in use at the pope tube works . the new tubing was stronger and more resistant to dents than the carbon steel that was commonly used . 20 hartford rubber works edit pope manufacturing acquired the hartford rubber works in 1892 as part of a vertical integration strategy . founded by john gray in 1885 hartford rubber works imported raw material from sumatra and produced solid tires . later the factory produced cushion and pneumatic tires . 21 18 motorcycles edit further information pope model l 1914 pope motorcycle pope began manufacturing motorized bicycles in 1902 and continued with motorcycles until 1918 . 22 mopeds edit 1978 columbia moped columbia mopeds were the first mopeds ever assembled in the united states even though the motor and some parts were outsourced . the tubular frames seats fenders wheels hubs brakes front fork assembly headlight and wiring harnesses were made in the united states . 23 the majority of columbia mopeds were powered with a 47cc sachs 505 1a though some were powered by a solo motor . even though the sachs 505 1a motor is designed for rear coaster brakes columbia chose to use a magura hand lever and cable for the rear brake . there are two models that are the most abundant frame types for columbia both of which went by the same name of columbia commuter . the pressed steel frame was sachs powered only while the tube frame model had either the sachs or the solo motor . the top tank columbia medallion also known as the western flyer is a unique design for columbia mopeds . essentially the frame of