Pope-Robinson Company

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The Pope-Robinson Company was an American automobile manufacturer based in Hyde Park, Massachusetts from 1902 to 1904 .

description

The company was founded by Colonel Albert A. Pope . Its roots can be traced back to the Bramwell-Robinson Company , a company that initially manufactured paper machines and between 1899 and 1901 also some three-wheeled vehicles with single-cylinder engines. In 1902 the owners separated and each opened his own automobile factory. Bramwell founded the Springfield Automobile Company in Springfield, Ohio , which existed until 1905, and Robinson had been manufacturing vehicles under his own name since 1900. The John T. Robinson and Company became the Robinson Motor Vehicle Company in 1902 and was bought by Pope in the same year.

In 1904 production was stopped and the company was sold to Buick . This was a clever move by the new boss at Buick, William Durant , who was not interested in Pope Robinson, but in his ALAM license. The ALAM ( Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers ) was a powerful association of automobile manufacturers who wanted to use a universal patent from George Baldwin Selden on the automobile to build up a monopoly. Anyone who wanted to build automobiles without their license had to expect to be sued by the ALAM, with often ruinous consequences.

model

The 1903/1904 Pope-Robinson was a touring car. It was equipped with a tonneau structure for 5 or 6 people and cost US $ 5,000. The water-cooled inline four-cylinder engine installed in the front had an output of 24 bhp (17.6 kW). A three-speed spur gear was connected. The car had a frame made of rectangular steel tubes and weighed 1179 kg. The modern rear-wheel drive vehicle had a cell radiator and competed with the best European brands.

model Construction period cylinder power wheelbase construction
1903-1904 4 row 24 bhp (17.6 kW) 2057-2413 mm Touring car 5/6 seats

literature

  • Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (January 1904)
  • Beverly Ray Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. Krause Publications, Iola 1985, ISBN 0-87341-045-9 . (English)
  • Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America , SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) Permissions, Warrendale PA (2005), ISBN 0-7680-1431-X (English)
  • Axel Madsen: The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant made General Motors , John Wiley & Sons, Inc., ISBN 0-4713-9523-4 (pbck) (English)
  • Lawrence R. Gustin, Kevin M. Kirbitz, Robert A. Lutz (Introduction): David Buick's Marvelous Motor Car: The Men and the Automobile that Launched General Motors , 2nd amended and expanded edition (2011); RateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; ISBN 1-466-26367-9 ISBN 978-1466-26367-3 ; soft cover (english)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Madsen: The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant made General Motors , p. 180