Junk i, 1903.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



315 



AN INTERVIEW WITH COLONEL POPE. 



Tl I E Pope Manufacturing Co., incorporated in New Jersey 

 on February 27 last, with $22,500 capital, on May 1 filed 

 with the secretary of state amended articles of incorporation, 

 increasing the authorized capitalization to $22,500,000. The 

 plan involves the issue of 25,000 shares of 6 per cent, cumu- 

 lative first preferred stock ; 100,000 shares 5 per cent, second 

 preferred stock, cumulative after February 1, 1905 ; and 100,000 

 shares common stock. The object of the new company, as 

 already stated in these pages, is to acquire the business of the 

 American Bicycle Co. and the related companies. 



On May 14 Colonel Albert A. Pope assumed actively the 

 duties of president of the Pope Manufacturing Co.. in the old 

 quarters of the American Bicycle Co., No. 19 Park row. New 

 York. It is understood that one of the first departments to be 

 organized in the new company was that having charge o( ad- 

 vertising, though extensive advertising will not begin until 

 next season. President Pope is quoted assaying: "Starting 

 now, at a time of year when bicycle manufacturers usually owe 

 a lot of money, we are free from debt, have plenty of capital, 

 and a determination to restore the bicycle to the place where 

 it belongs." 



The great amount of interest that rub- 

 ber manufacturers have long felt in the 

 work of Colonel Pope led The India 

 Ruuber World to seek him in his Park 

 row sanctum recently and indulge in a 

 heart-to-heart talk with the foremost fig- 

 ure in the manufacture of American bicy- 

 cles. In appearance the Colonel is as 

 young as he was five years ago, and he is 

 full of his old time energy and enthusi- 

 asm. A point of paramount importance 

 that the interviewer wished settled was 

 whether the new Pope Manufacturing Co< 

 intended to purchase their tires of existing 

 rubber manufacturers, or whether they 

 would erect a new factory and manufact- 

 ure for themselves. This question was fired 

 at the Colonel at the start, and with his 

 usual alertness he promptly said that it 

 was not a fair question, and that if it was alberi 



he should have to be excused from an- 

 swering. Speaking further of tires he said that, although the 

 type of tire was a matter for experts to settle, he still believed 

 that the single tube was as practical and popular as ever, and 

 as far as he could see was likely to continue so. 



Defining briefly the policy of the new company, Colonel 

 Pope said that last year, which was a bad year for the sale of 

 bicycles, there were sold something like 600,000 wheels, and 

 that although nobody had any definite figures, during the 

 palmiest days of the bicycle manufacture there were something 

 like 1,500,000 wheels made in a year. A point that he empha- 

 sized was that this was before the cheap wheels had come into 

 the market and purchasers had become disgusted with inferior 

 products. Replying to a question he said that he believed 

 that there was a normal market in the United States for 1,000,- 

 000 wheels a year. The plan of the company now is to turn out 

 high grade wheels at a fair price; his theory being that there 

 are thousands of people who would rather pay $60 for a good 

 wheel than to pay $40 for one of another sort. When asked if 

 the price of bicycles as a rule would be lower than they have 

 been in the past, the Colonel waxed highly indignant, pointing 

 out that as all the companies had lost money at the present 



prices, the natural policy must be better goods at a higher 

 price. 



Colonel Pope makes no secret of favoring a comprehensive 

 plan for interesting the whole American public in cycling, and 

 as a beginning has formed a Publicity Department at the head 

 of which is one of his B >ston lieutenants, K. L, Winkley. He 

 also expressed himself in favor of the suggestion that automo- 

 bile clubs admit bicycle riders, giving them the same attention 

 and service that automobilUts have, and further that in their 

 own interest automobilists, bicyclists, and good roads men 

 should all stand together. He felt that if they did so very rapid 

 progress would be made, better laws passed, and that the time 

 would come — and very shortly — when in a city like New York it 

 would be as much against the law to drive a horse through the 

 street as it is at present to drive cattle and hogs. 



Colonel Pope on May 19 paid a visit to the " Columbia " bi- 

 cycle factory at Hartford, Connecticut— the factory in which 

 his successes as a bicycle manufacturer were won. At a lun- 

 cheon spread in the dining room of the factory, in a speech to 

 the 800 employes, Colonel Pope said, as reported in The Bicy- 

 cling World: 



" Now I have come back to my own. Much against my will, 

 but on the advice of my friends, some of whom perhaps were 

 not friends, I sold out this plant, believ- 

 ing that things would go on as well as 

 ever. But it was a mistake; forty-four 

 concerns all tumbled to ruin under that 

 management. My advice was never lis- 

 tened to. and the forty four concerns com- 

 bined against me. I have returned under 

 the only conditions that would bring me 

 back — at the head of the concern." 



Colonel Pope will reside hereafter in 

 New York, where his office is. The ful- 

 list of officers of the Pope manufacturing 

 Co. has not yet been completed. There 

 are now fifteen factories under control of 

 the company. Colonel Pope celebrated 

 his sixtieth birthday on May 20. 



GUTTA-PERCHA COMPOUND. 



IN order to obtain in a single prepara- 

 tion 



A. POPE. 



the combined properties of Gut- 

 ta-percha and cement, Emil Herbst, D. D. s. of Germany, has 

 devised the following method : A given quantity of cement 

 powder is mixed thoroughly with an equal amount of base- 

 plate Gutta-percha filings, and into the resulting mixture a 

 small amount of cement liquid is incorporated. This paste 

 becomes thoroughly hard and can be advantageously used in 

 setting crowns and bridges. It becomes soft and malleable 

 when heated, and therefore a bridge set with it can be easily 

 removed. Incidentally he refeis to another method of obtain- 

 ing a Gutta-percha-cement compound, which consists in mixing 

 together equal quantities of cement paste and Gutta-percha 

 solution. This combination makes a preparation which easily 

 adheres to the walls of the tooth and becomes slightly soft 

 upon being heated. Dr. Herbst offers these methods as mere 

 suggestions on the possibilities of mixing cement with Gutta- 

 percha with the object of obtaining a material possessing the 

 advantages of both, and he says that the results obtained in 

 the few cases in which he has tried the combination would 

 warrant its further trial by the profession. — [Abstracted by 

 The Dental Cosmos from the Deutsche Zahniirztliche Wochen- 

 schri/t.] 



