The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-12-16
Early Sleeping Cars.

1t was just about forty years ago
that the idea of sleeping car for
night travel first took tangible form.
TO say positively that this or that man
was the original inventor of the sleep
ing car would probably be met with pro-
tests and expressions of diverse opin-
ions.
The American Railway says that the.
prototypes of the sleeping car were
used on the Cumberland Valley Rail
road, between Harrisburg and Cum
berland, as early as the Winter of
1867. These cars, however, were
not of the combination order, and they
were abandoned in 1849.
According to the tradition preserved
by the Wagner Palace Car Company,
the originator of the sleeping car was
Theodore T.. Woodruff. The honor is
also claimed for ben" Field Of AL
bion, in this State, once prominent
politician. Albion was the early res
idence of George NJ. Pullman, and it
is to him, it is said, that the Pullman
cars owe their origin. Mr.. Woodruff
prepared his model, it is said, in the
Office of James Tillinghast, at Rome,
N. Y, in 1854. Mr.. Tillinghast was
then in the employ Of the Rome and
Watertown Railroads. He did not
have sufficient faith in Woodruff's
invention to advance the money to
have it patented. So, like many 9TH
er inventors, as well as prophets, who
have found little honor in their own
country, Woodruff was obliged to go
our from the original scene Of his la
bors to I'D somebody to appreciate
his new luea and to give him financial
support.
Woodruff finally found patron in
Mr.. Watson, the car builder of Spring.
field, Mass, to whom the inventor had
gone with his precious model wrapped
in an old bandana handkerchief. Mr..
Watson built trial car, which made
its first trip on the New York Central
and the Rome and Watertown Rail-
road. The car was afterward run to
Cleveland, Cincinnati and Western
cities, where it was looked upon as a
great curiosity. 1t was finally sold to
the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad
Company, and was regularly run on
its line for number of years.
At first the new sleeping cars were
more popular with passengers than
with railroad managers. The railroad
men looked at all improvements likely
to increase the comfort of travel with
distrust. They argued that the more
convenience travellers had the more
they would want, and the cost Of them
to the companies would be enormous.
They probably realized that more at
tractive travelling would increase the
volume of travel, but their deductions
as to the amount Of travelling that
would probably be done we're drawn
from the days Of stage coaches, and
they apparently never suspected what
an immense impetus to travel and what
an enormous increase in their business
would result from the adoption of such
improvements as sleeping cars.
The public had its way, however, as
it generally does, and in few years
sleepers were running on most Of the
prominent railroads of the United
States.
The first sleepers that were built
would not be considered fit to travel
in now, but they were regarded as
great luxuries then. The fittings and
furnishings were of the plainest sort.
A shelf was placed across the seats,
which accommodated passengers as
usual in the daytime, to form the
lower berth, and two were let down
from the sides, forming three tiers Of
berths on each side Of the car. The
car was lighted by kerosene lamps
attached to the ceiling, and warmed
by an old-fashioned wood stove, placed
near the centre of the car. By taking
care in selecting the position of the
berth, one might on cold night have
the privilege of sleeping in the tenn
perature of che tropics, in the vary
ing degrees Of the temperate zone, or
in the frigidity of the arctic circle, ac-
cording as he should be near to or re-
mote from the stove.
The exterior of the cars, like that
of other passenger coaches Of those
days, was unornamented.-Neao York
Tribune.