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��Colonel Albert A. Pope.
��wire spokes and steel rims, the tubular frame work, the enlargement of the forward wheel, the decreasing in size of the rear wheel, the leg guard, the bi- furcated fork over the rear wheel, besides other improvements of less importance. The first bicycles pub- licly exhibited in this country were shown at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876.
After twelve years of business at the head of the shoe-finding house, Col- onel Pope retired from that to take charge of the bicycle business, which he had just commenced under the name of The Pope Manufacturing Co., which belonged to him and which he had or- ganized into a company some time be- fore for the purpose of conducting the air pistol business.
In the summer of 1877 Mr. John Har- rington, an English gentleman, was a guest at his house, spending several months with him, and he was so enthusiastic over the bicycle that in or- der to show what it was and its practica- bility he had one made. On that Colonel Pope learned to ride, and having learned he began to think, as did his English friend, that the bicycle was worthy of the attention of the American public. Mr. Harrington went home in September and Colonel Pope told him to send over a few- bicycles, but he delayed sending them and later in the season Colonel Pope ordered eight bicycles through his Eng- lish correspondent in Manchester. They arrived here about the first of January. After he had received and examined them he made up his mind that there would be enough in the business to warrant a proper outlay of capital, and decided to go into it.
Believing that if there was much to do in bicycling we should have to man- ufacture in this country, early in the
��year 1878 he interested the Weed Sew- ing Machine Company in the manufac- ture. After getting them started on the way he went over to Europe to study up the manufacture and to see what hold it had upon the English people, and also to determine whether he should be justified in making the large outlay that would be necessary in order to make it a successful business. He re- turned in the sumi«er well satisfied and fully convinced in his own mind that in process of time the bicycle interest in this country would equal that in Eng- land, The first lot of fifty was made and sold in the summer and fall of 1878. Suddenly there arose a small army of owners of patents demanding royalties, for more than a thousand inventions for the improvement and perfection of the velocipede had been patented. Emi- nent counsel was employed and all claims were carefully investigated. Eventually more than forty patentees had to be conciliated, and royalties ranging from %\ to $10 each had to be paid.
Colonel Pope's policy from the first was to secure the control of the most important inventions, for he foresaw the future of the bicycle business and real- ized the necessity of being in command. He was obliged to invest large amounts of money in patents.
It was a great and hazardous under- taking to embark capital jn the bicycle business when the public was so preju- diced against them, remembering the total failure of the velocipede craze of earlier days. With one hand he had to create a demand and with the other cre- ate the supply ; with no material "at hand suitable for the work, with no me- chanics familiar with bicycle construc- tion, — all having to be educated and trained to the business. There was no
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