The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-01-17

NAE1ILLIAM LOCKWOOD. liz Cham
H5AEE9 bers street. New York, hard
~ A:.S ware merchant of wealth and me-
chanical genus, has just worked out the
details of most remarkable invention,
which he hopes to see in every large hos
telry in the land ere long. He has trav-
cleo for twenty-five years, and du ring that
time, after a caref I'll estimate, he has
figured out that he has walked through
hotel corridors distance almost equal to
that from Gotham to the Golden Gate.
With such an extensive hotel acquaint-
ance it naturally follows that hi S very face
is known in every hotel between the At
lantic and the Rocky Mountains. He is.
by no means unfamiliar with many of the
hostelries of the Pacific Coast, and it was
this familiarity with hotels and the chief
disadvantages of the best of them which
first gave him the idea of his plan, which
may seem somewhat impractl' al or
chin erical at first glance. 1t has, how
ever, been pronounced entirely practical
ana feasible by hotel men and mechanical
engineers, before whom he has laid his
plans.
Everybody who has had any experience
at all with hotels knows the tiresome
length of the Railways and corridors of
| big city hostelry, where hundreds can be
| accomm odated at one time, and also the
confusing labyrinth which the Railways
are to stranger in search of his or her
room. The very fact that the Railways
are so confusing to one unfamiliar with
| them causes much unnecessary walking,
and to an invalid or an old person the adj
ditional steps taken in wearisome hunt
for room often means much in the way
of exertion. II would puzzle a conjurer to
find his room in Youngs Hotel in Boston
or in the Windsor or Plaza hotels OF New
| York, especially if he wa S unfamiliar with
| the arrangement of the halls.
! 1t is to do away with all this unneces-
sary walking and hunting about the
house that Mr.. Lockwood has perfected
the details of his invention and it is the
| imperative ease with which it can be ap-
piled to any hotel and the amount of time
and walking which it will save guests of
the house which causes him to hope that
before long they Will be a reality in every
hotel of any consequence.
This invention entirely does away with
the necessity of walking from the time a
guest registers at the clerks desk until
invention is a unique indoor tramway,
which leads to all Parts of the house and
on which guests can be carried wherever
they may desire to go. When one pauses
to consider the idea in all its simplicity of
detail the practcability OF the whole thing
becomes at once apparent and the wonder
is why in this age of labor-saving devices
it was not thought of long ago and put
into general use.
Starting from in front of the clerk s
desk. where the newly arrived guest regis
tiers, is small pair OF rails very light OF
construction and set into the floor of the
corridor so as to be hardly noticeable. In
fact, so little do the rails attract the notice
OF the guests that at a casual glance they
appear more like part of the design oil
the floor ornamentation than anything
else. From the desk these rails lead di-
: rectly up the stairs and through the maze
OF Railways to all parts of the house.
Immediately after the guest has regis
cred and been assigned to room the
clerk, instead of calling for the time hon.
ored front" simply touches an electric
button and almost as if by magic hand
, some little car gldes around the corner
from behind the desk, and passing along
the miniature railway track, the use for