1903 Columbia Electric

Surrey

After Colonel Albert Pope became the nation's largest bicycle manufacturer, he set his sights on similar goals with the automobile. In 1896, Pope built an experimental electric car. The following year, he hired Hiram Percy Maxim to lead the motor carriage department of the Pope Manufacturing Company in Hartford, Connecticut. By the close of the 1800s, the company had built several hundred ore electrics under the Columbia name, which he also used for his bicycles.

Meanwhile, the Electric Vehicle Company was started by Isaac L. Rice in New York City with the intention of building electric taxicabs. A few had been put into service, just in time to be tested during the NY City's blizzard of 1899. They performed well, and Financier William Collins Whitney took notice and bought the company. Whitney needed a manufacturing base, so he approached Colonel Pope for assistance. The result was the Columbia Automobile Company of Hartford, organized in 1899.

Within a few short years, the company had nine models of the Columbia electric, carrying such names as Mark XXI, Mark XXXV, and Mark III. Body styles included runabouts, Victoria's, phaetons, Surrey, and cabriolets.

This 1903 Columbia Electric Surrey was purchased from the James Cousens Cedar Crossing Collection in 2008 by the John O'Quinn collection. It is a Mark XIX with a dual direct-drive Edison DC motor with two-wheel mechanical brakes.

In 2011, the car was offered for sale at the Hershey Auction presented by RM Auctions. The car was estimated to sell for $70,000 - $90,000. As bidding came to a close, the car was sold for the sum of $68,750, inclusive of the buyer's premium.

by Dan Vaughan

Runabout

The Columbus Electric was built in Columbus, Ohio from 1903 through 1915. Total production is not known, although approximately 1,000 were produced in model year 1910. There are only two of these 1903 Columbus Electric vehicles known to have survived.

This Columbus, serial #78, is from the first year of production, during which only this folding-top roadster body style was offered. This body style was typical of the early automobiles built in America, whether powered by gasoline or electricity, with the 'buggy' body retaining its basic horse-drawn configuration and the horse replaced with a suitably configured and suitably positioned power source. In the early gasoline automobile, the power source was a one- or two-cylinder internal combustion engine positioned under the front seat, which drove a chain powering the rear wheels. In the early electric automobile, as typified by this Columbus Electric, the power source is comprised of several batteries positioned under a front hood; and several more batteries positioned under the rear deck, with an electric motor positioned under the front seat that drives the rear wheels. In this Columbus, the drive to the rear wheels is comprised of a differential positioned under the motor. It is rear-driven by the motor, and a pair of chains on opposite sides of the car extending between the differential and split axles driving their respective rear wheels. The car is steered by a tiller and is controlled by a lever that functions to connect one or more batteries in series so that the vehicle speed is directly proportional to the number of series-connected batteries. The early history of the car is not known, but it was discovered in Kingston, Ontario by the owner's father in 1957 in fairly sound condition. The car was let out on loan to a museum in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in the 1960s and then retrieved when the museum closed in the 1970s.