To all who wondered how the founder of the ARRL made his money…
From Hyman, a magazine dedicated to car collectors:
> After serving the Union Army with honors in the Civil War, Col. Albert
> Augustus Pope established a business that would eventually grow into
> America’s first automobile manufacturing conglomerate. Pope’s business began
> with a scheme to manufacture patented products for other companies, which
> proved to be quite lucrative. The firm’s initial foray into wheeled
> transportation came with the bicycle craze of the late 1800s. Col. Pope
> capitalized on the popularity of cycling first through a deal to import
> bicycles from England, then by using his manufacturing prowess to produce
> bikes for many different brands. The American Bicycle Company encompassed
> over 40 different brand names, including their flagship Columbia nameplate,
> which still exists today.
>
>
> Pope was quick to react when the bike craze faded and the horseless carriage
> emerged. His engineers experimented with a petrol-powered motorcar prior the
> turn of the century, then settled on an electric as their first production
> automobile, first sold under the trusted Columbia brand name. In 1897, Pope
> Manufacturing Company established a motor vehicle division, placing Hiram
> Percy Maxim at the helm. In 1899, a New York financier by the name of William
> Whitney bought out the Electric Vehicle Company and approached Col. Pope with
> a proposed merger. The two reached an agreement, and the Columbia Automobile
> Company was born. Pope later added the Waverley electric to his portfolio as
> a series of mergers, takeovers, and name changes saw Columbia change hands
> several times. The firm soldiered on, offering a series of high-quality,
> upmarket electric and gasoline vehicles for their wealthy clientele. In 1910,
> the company became part of Benjamin Briscoe’s United States Motor, itself an
> attempt to emulate Billy Durant’s mighty General Motors Corporation.
> Unfortunately, in September 1912 US Motors failed, taking the Columbia
> Automobile Company down with it.
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