Talk:Columbia (automobile brand)

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Columbia (automobile brand) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Business Low‑importance

	Business portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Business, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of business articles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BusinessWikipedia:WikiProject BusinessTemplate:WikiProject BusinessWikiProject Business articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Automobiles Low‑importance

	Cars portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Automobiles, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of automobiles on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.AutomobilesWikipedia:WikiProject AutomobilesTemplate:WikiProject AutomobilesAutomobile articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

United States Low‑importance

	United States portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts United StatesWikipedia:WikiProject United StatesTemplate:WikiProject United StatesUnited States articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Companies Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Companies, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of companies on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.CompaniesWikipedia:WikiProject CompaniesTemplate:WikiProject Companiescompany articles

Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

WikiProject Companies To-do:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Wikipedia:Requested articles/Business and economics/Companies
Assess : Category:Unassessed company articles
Copyedit : Category:Company articles needing attention
Infobox : Category:Company articles needing infoboxes
Maintain : Portal:Companies
Stubs : Help expand stub articles located at Category:Company stubs
Other :
- Tag company articles with the {{portal|Companies}} template
- Tag company talk pages with the {{WikiProject Companies}} project banner
- Answer requests for comments

Redirect

If this is all the information that can be here, perhaps merging this material into Electric Vehicle Company would be appropriate? NickelShoe 16:33, 28 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Runabout price

The article says the Runabout cost $750 and then the next paragraph says is cost $850. Which is correct? Or were both correct but in different years? The Autoweek reference says $850. Can't see any reference for the $750 figure. Stepho talk 07:46, 9 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Found part of the answer myself. The Leslie reference (Jan 1904, presumably written in late 1903) gives a price of $750, with an indication that it will rise to $800 in 1904. The Autoweek reference (2006) says the 1903 Runabout was $850. Still not quite consistent though. Stepho talk 08:22, 9 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I can't give you a citation, but I suspect in these early years prices fluctuated frequently.HornColumbia talk 12:36, 9 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Columbia

This was a brand name but there is absolutely no sign of any business called Columbia Automobile Company. See the ads categorised under this imaginary business name and then look at the other names in the article. I've been trying to make sense of it for Wikimedia so don't trust what I say in the Wikimedia description, I've tossed it in.

I'd say more research needed! Eddaido (talk) 00:37, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The "absolutely no sign"/"imaginary" idea is apparently mistaken. See this search. It's definitely "a real thing". A quick glance at those search results seems to support what this article says—that Pope and Electric Vehicle Company merged into Columbia Automobile Company. I didn't spend any more time on it than to search and skim, but the search points toward further reading. — ¾-10 19:28, 13 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

OK/ Here's skimming a very very little deeper taking you with me using copy and paste: (That company seems to have had a life of 14 days from 18 April 1899 to 3 May 1899)

The results of your search:

- - Electric and Hybrid Cars: A History - Page 24 — "Pope's Columbia Automobile Company acquired the factory and by 1900 both Pope and Riker Electric Motor Company's automobile division had become part of the Electric Vehicle Company."

- - The Automobile Age - Page 9 — "The Pope motor vehicle division became the Columbia Automobile Company and was consolidated into the aforementioned Electric Vehicle Comany in 1899."

- - Agreements, indentures & charters of Columbia & Elec. ... - Pa — (dated 1899)

- - Chrysler - Page 10 — Omits the change of operations to Electric Vehicle Company

- - Automobiles, Mining and Petroleum, Textiles - Page 61 — "The motor vehicle department of Pope's enterprise became the Columbia Automobile Company during this time, named after one of Pope's first successful bicycle models. In 1899 it was consolidated into the Columbia and Electric Vehicle ..."
  - The Electric Vehicle: Technology and Expectations in the ... — "Added to Whitney's $1 million, the capital was used to set up the Columbia Automobile Company on 19 April 1899. The two companies each took half of the shares. Pope, Day, and Eames formed the board of directors. The new company ... Ha ha ha on 3 May 1899

And the last laugh!

- - Columbia Automobile Company Frederic P. Miller, ‎Agnes F. Vandome, ‎McBrewster John - 2010 - ‎No preview

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

I got here because I was tryng to categorize a photo. I have no further interest. Regards, Eddaido (talk) 07:43, 14 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, OK, I see—if that company was little more than an entity on paper for a month, then this article's pagename would probably be better as "Columbia (automobile brand)". Then the names of the various companies that used that brand can all be mentioned in the article without the pagename being dependent on them. I'm going to be bold and move it. — ¾-10 16:15, 14 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Good work, well done. Eddaido (talk) 01:07, 15 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Battery vs Cell

The Columbia Runabout is described as having twenty 'batteries'. Battery here really means 'cell', the basic 2V lead-acid unit with its own filler cap. Cells can be packaged in various ways to make a battery. Most people think of a battery as a self contained item, like a 6V battery with three cells in series. The Baker Electric car specification gives the number of 'cells' not batteries, and I think cell should be here used instead of less clear term battery. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.217.200.163 (talk) 06:24, 21 February 2015 (UTC)[reply]