combine their patents and split a $10 or $15 royalty per bicycle that they would enforce against American producers. Pope managed to negotiate separately with the two companies and purchased controlling interest in the patent pool. He continued to invest in patents even remotely related to bicycle production. He filed lawsuits against rival bicycle marketers, then agreed to drop the suits in exchange for a $10 per unit royalty fee. Promotion of bicycles and cycling Pope spent no less than $8,000 on bicycle advocacy. As some local governments had introduced restrictions or bans on bicycle use, Pope treated this as a threat to his business. In response to an 1880 New York City ban against bicycle riding in Central Park, he staged a legal confrontation. Three cyclists rode into Central Park to defy the law with the knowledge that Pope would pay their legal fees. The cyclists, however, lost the cases and all the appeals, but Pope did provide the support he promised. Pope, with his brother Arthur and his cousin Edward, were among the founders of the Massachusetts Bicycle Club. Pope continued importing ordinaries from Europe and taking out US patents on these models. By the early 1890s, he had established a bicycle trust which controlled the central bicycle patents in the US. Nearly every US bicycle manufacturer paid Pope around $10 per bicycle. His bicycle brand was known as the Columbia. By the mid-1890s, at the height of the bicycle craze, Pope was manufacturing about a quarter million bicycles annually. The major problem for bicycles at this time was the lack of suitable roads on which to ride them. Pope being not only a bicycle manufacturer but a bicycle-riding enthusiast, was particularly troubled by this problem. He formed the League of American Wheelmen and the Good Roads Movement to agitate for and petition governments for improved roads. Automobiles Columbia Automobile Company From 1896, he began to diversify into automobile production. The chief engineer of his Pope Motor Carriage department was Hiram Percy Maxim. In 1897, he renamed the Motor Carriage Department as the separate Columbia Automobile Company, which was spun off and sold to the Electric Vehicle Company, in which he was also an investor. In 1897, Pope Manufacturing began production of an electric automobile in Hartford, Connecticut. By 1899, the company had produced over 500 vehicles. Hiram Percy Maxim was head engineer of the Motor Vehicle Department.