The Monopoly Machine

An interesting read:

In our last column, Attorney Bruce Epperson described how Colonel Albert Pope, the "Rockefeller of Bicycles" manuvered in 1878 to acquire all the significant patents covering the basic features of the bicycle, including Pierre Lallement's 1866 "Improvement in Velocipedes," the first bicycle patent in the United States. This Week, in Part 2 of "The Monopoly Machine" we look at how the Colonel tried to use those patents to create a monopoly over the entire bicycle industry.