436 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[September i, 1909. 



*'The Father of the Bicycle." 



THERE is no question that the giving of a practical jliapc to 

 the bicycle afforded the most definite impetus that the de- 

 velopment of the pneumatic tire ever received. There had 

 been pneumatic tires and there had been bicycles years before 

 Albert Augustus Pope began his business career, but neither 

 had been developed into a commercial success, and it may be 

 claimed for this gentleman that to no one else in any country is 

 so much credit due for giving the bicycle a practical shape or for 

 encouraging the development of a tire that would make the use 

 of the bicycle popular. Xot only this, but in America he was the 

 original apostle of good roads, rightly holding that before he 

 could build up a great business in bicycles — and he did live to 

 build up the greatest in the world — there must be a sy-tcm of 

 roads over which bicycles could be run. The missionary work- 

 he performed in the interest of roads, at a great cost of personal 

 effort, as well as the expenditure of a fortune, not only promoted 

 bicycling, but is to-day a source of satisfaction to hundreds of 

 thousands of motorists, and a source of profit to such users of 

 American highways as still employ 

 horse-drawn vehicles. 



Albert Augustus Pope was born 

 September 20. 1843, in Brookline, near 

 Boston. The outbreak of the civil war 

 found him employed as a clerk in the 

 shoe and leather trade. At the age of 19 

 he enlisted in the Thirty-fifth Massa- 

 chusetts Infantry in which he was speed- 

 ily promoted for efficiency, and at the end 

 of the war he received as a reward for 

 "gallant conduct" the brevet title of Lieu- 

 tenant-Colonel. Shortly afterward he 

 was engaged in business on his own ac- 

 count in Boston in shoe manufacturers' 

 supplies and kindred goods. At the 

 Philadelphia Centennial E.xhibition, in 

 1876, his attention was first attracted to 

 the bicycle by seeing one of English 

 make — the kind with the great high 

 wheel in front. He at once learned to 

 ride and took on the importation of these 

 machines, but in 1877 '1^ 'latl a bicycle 

 built at the cost of $313, the first built 

 in America, and the forerunner in the 

 very great business in bicycles done by 

 Colonel Pope. 



In 1876 he had organized the Pope Manufacturing Co., to deal 

 in small patented articles. It was soon to devote its interest ex- 

 clusively to bicycles. In 1878 the company gave an order for 

 bicycles to a sewing machine company at Hartford, Connecti- 

 cut, and soon beame the largest customer of the latter, finally 

 taking over the control of the factory. The Pope Manufacturing 

 Co. acquired the various patents on bicycles which speedily came 

 into existence, with a view not so much to monopolizing the in- 

 dustry as to rendering himself independent of others. 



The liberal policy of Colonel Pope is illustrated by his issuing 

 licenses under his patents to all reputable concerns engaged in 

 the same industry. His work in the cause of good roads likewise 

 benefited his competitors as well as himself. Likewise the whole 

 trade was benefited by a bicycle journal which he founded at 

 a heavy cost. Always disposed toward a policy of independence, 

 Colonel Pope insisted upon the control of every item of pro- 

 duction of the bicycle, an illustration of which was his purchase 

 of the Hartford Rubber Works, originally devoted to another 

 branch of production, but by the Pope Manufacturing Co. de- 

 voted exclusively to rubber tires. 



'1 he Pope Manufacturing Co. took part in the organization of 

 the American Bicycle Co.. incorporated in New Jersey in 1899. 

 with $80,000,000 capital authorized, Colonel Pope becoming a 

 director. In the declining popularity of the bicycle which fol- 

 lowed within a few years The American Bicycle Co. went into 

 liquidation, after which Colonel Pope organized a new Pope Man- 

 ufacturing Co. and succeeded to the business of the failed concern. 

 He labored hard to restore the popularity of the bicycle, but finally 

 his company devoted itself more largely to automobiles. 



It is to be noted, bj' the way, that Colonel Pope was a pioneer 

 in automobiles as well as in bicycles. The automobile in America 

 had little serious attention until a motor carriage department was 

 organized by the Pope Manufacturing Co., the first product being 

 an electric vehicle illustrated in The India Rubber World, June 

 ID, 1897 (page 249), under the heading "Practical Introduction 

 of the Horseless Carriage." 



Much of Colonel Pope's personal fortune was lost in the 

 wreck of the .American Bicycle Co. But he addressed himself 

 bravely to turning its eflfects to account, 

 and although the Pope Manufacturing 

 Co. were obliged to apply for a receiver- 

 ship in August, 1907 — at the beginning of 

 tlic general financial depression — all the 

 creditors were paid in full, and the com- 

 pany was reorganized on a sound basis. 

 Colonel Pope was in failing health for 

 a considerable time before his death, 

 which occurred on August 10, at his 

 liome at Cohasset, Massachusetts. 

 Funeral services were held at the resi- 

 dence and at the Old South Church, in 

 Boston, the latter being attended by 

 members, military and civic organizations 

 and a large number of prominent citi- 

 zens. The service was of a semi-military 

 nature. The interment was at Forest 

 Hills cemetery. 



Colonel Pope married, September 20, 



1871, Miss Abby Linder, of Newton, 



Massachusetts, who survives him, with 



three sons and a daughter. They are 



Albert L. Pope, now president of the 



Pope company ; Harold L. Pope, Ralph 



L. Pope and Mrs. Freeman L. Hinckley. 



Colonel Pope was a director in several banks and a member of 



various other institutions — business, social, scientific, and so on. 



He had served in the city councils of Boston and Newton. 



The value of Colonel Pope's estate was not stated at the filing 

 of his will for probate at Dedham, Massachusetts, on August 14, 

 but it is estimated at more than $2,000,000. There are fourteen 

 bequests of public or philanthropic character, disposing of shares 

 in the Pope Manufacturing Co., of the par value of $21,000. Pro- 

 vision is made for the widow of an annuity of $12,000 for life, 

 together with liberal bequests to the descendant's sisters and 

 various other relatives. 



The duties of the receivers of the old Pope Manufacturing Co. 

 ceased on .August 3, when the last formality was concluded in the 

 New Jersey court and the receivers were discharged from further 

 responsibility. The new, reorganized Pope Manufacturing Co., 

 however, had been in possession of the Pope factories and 

 property for several months. 



Late Albert A. Porn. 



Two New Yorkers, while engaged in pumping up a deflated 

 automobile tire, are mentioned as each having had an arm 

 fractured as a result of the tire explosion. 



