Columbia Automobile Company
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The Columbia Automobile Company was a leading early Hartford, Connecticut, United States manufacturer of automobiles.
The Columbia Automobile Company was created as a joint venture of the Motor Vehicle Division of the Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut and the Electric Vehicle Company in 1899.
At the turn of the Twentieth century they were producing and selling hundreds of vehicles a year under Pope's Columbia brand name, while most gasoline engine automobile manufacturers had made only a few dozen.
In 1908, the company was renamed the Columbia Motor Car Co. and in 1910 was acquired by United States Motor Company.
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[edit] Electric models
The 1904 Columbia Brougham was a brougham model. Equipped with a tonneau, it could seat 4 passengers and sold for US$3500. Twin electric motors were situated at the rear of the car. Similar Columbia Coupe coupes, Columbia Hansom hansoms, were also produced for the same price and could hit 13 mph (21 km/h). A Columbia Victoria Phaeton phaeton model was priced at US$3000 but was based on the same design.
The Columbia Surrey and Columbia Victoria were more traditional horseless carriages. Both used the same power system as the larger cars, with twin electric motors, but cost much less at US$1500 and US$1600, respectively.
At the bottom end of the range was the Columbia Runabout. Priced at just US$750, it used a single electric motor with an Exide battery and Concord springs.
Columbia's basic runabout was typical of the time, resembling a horseless carriage, steered via a tiller, for $850, $200 more than the contemporary Curved Dash Olds. The 1200 pound (544 kg), single bench seat vehicle had a wheelbase of 64 inches (162cm), and rode on 30 inch (76cm) wooden spoked wheels, with leather fenders. The drivetrain had clear evolutionary roots in Pope's bicycle business, driving the rear axle via a chain drive, which accounted for virtually the only operating noise. Between the motor and the chain drive was a transmission with three forward and two reverse speeds. Twenty batteries manufactured by Exide Batteries, also associated with Electric Vehicle Company, were placed above both axles so as to balance the weight. Brakes on both rear wheels featured a bell, which rang when the vehicle reached a full stop. Top speed was about 15 miles per hour (24 km/h).
In addition to the runabout, Columbia had a range of about 20 electric vehicles all the way up to electric buses, and including taxis and police cars. The vehicles were most popular in cities, where the relatively smooth roads made the superiority in smoothness and silence of the electric motor over the gasoline engine obvious, and where electrical supply for recharging was easily found within the runabout's 40 mile (64km) range. Nevertheless, in 1903, a Columbia was driven 250mi (400km) from Boston to New York City in 23 hours. In keeping with this urban orientation, the Columbia was positioned as a high-end vehicle, with its showroom across the street from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
[edit] Internal Combustion engined models
The Columbia Touring Car was an entirely different car. A touring car model, it used a tonneau, seating 6 passengers, and resembled the touring models offered by many other companies at the time. Priced at US$4500 to $5000, it used a vertically-mounted straight-4, situated at the front of the car, producing 24 hp (17.9 kW). A 4-speed sliding transmission was fitted. The car weighed 3000 lb (1361 kg). One design innovation was the "false frame" supporting the engine.
A Knight sleeve valve powered model was added to the range in 1912 and 1913.
[edit] See also
- Brass Era car
- Columbia (automobile)
- United States Motor Company
- List of defunct United States automobile manufacturers
[edit] References
- 1903 Columbia Mark LX Electric Runabout, Autoweek Magazine, November 6, 2006
- Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (January, 1904)
- David Burgess Wise, The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles, ISBN 0-7858-1106-0
