The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-11-06
TWO oLD-r1ME sLEEPERs.

/
They Were Built in Harlem and Were
in Use on the New York and Erie
| Railroad as Early as 1S43
/ In 1879 the Pullman Palace Car COM
( pany brought suit against the Wagner
| Palace Car company TO recover dam
ages for infringement Of the alleged
| Pullman patents, but after continuing
| for months and the taking of volumin-
| Gus testimony, halt was called in the
| procee dinge, and nothing more was
ever hear of it. The public never knew
| the reason for the discontinuance of
| that suit, in the outcome of which mil
| lions were involved. A former official
of the Erie who knew the inside of the
controversy placed the correspondent
| of the Express in possession of the
facts years after the suit was forgot
ten.
Pullmans chief claim to the monopo-
ly in the sleeping car patent was
founded on his control, as assignee, of
patents issued to Eli Wheeler of FL
mira in September, 1859. The validity
of those patents had been disputed by
Rudolph Dirks of Summertown, Pa,
who claimed them as his and that
w iNVicl Iau ODtdllltu tIltII ny HIS
presentation, q claim that he never
succeeded in carrying to a legal de-
csion. There had been sleeping car
patents issued more than twenty years
before the Wheeler patents, the ear
lest being to Charles McGraw These
did not trouble either Pullman or Wag-
ner in the lawsuit, although Wagner
produced the evidence to show that |
Pullman was not the inventor. as he |
claimed, of the sleeping car.
1t was not until the late John Ste |
phenson, the pioneer car builder of |
this country, made his revelations, |
that both the great sleeping car claim
ants saw the ground for their claims |
falling away from them. Stephenson
brought out the fact that the sleeping
car had not only been invented, but
that at least two. sleeping cars had
been made and were in use years be-
fore either Pullman or Wagner was
ever heard Of Those cars were built
at the Stephenson shops in Harlem N.
Y, for the New York and Erie rail-
road. Thomas Brown, who made the
models for the cars, died but recently.
The principle on which they were
was exactly the one on
which both the Pullman and Wagner
claims to priority of invention were
based. The frames of the seats were
stationary. two seats being placed
back. causing each pair of seats to
face to each other The cushions were
loose from the frames of the seats and
a rod or bar could be slid from under
one seats, across the opening between ,
two facing seats at the front or aisle
side and fitted in hole in the frame
IF the other seat, The aisle ends of the ,
seat cushions were laid upon this bar,
he other ends resting upon the truss {
plank at the wall side of the car, the ,
cushions being pushed forward over
he foot space The back cushions :
we're moved down to take the place of !
he seat cushions, thus making plat
'orm or bed There was partition :
against which the back cushions rest ,
ID when in place, and which formed :
read and foot boards between the ,
beds. 4
Mr. Stephenson said the cars were
lot intended as sleeping cars as the :
erm Is used now, but to be used by
If they chose, for reclining !
II sleeping during their journey. :
There was not railroad in the coun-
ny then long enough to require an all
light journey TO get from one end of
t to the other. Railroad travel was
'ver by9 p. m. in those days The
erie was then only little more than. :
ixty miles in length, it's western ter
minus being Mddletown, ~ Y. But
hose cars. Mr. Stephenson declared,
we're built to be slept in. and were |
leeping cars,
1t was this revelation about the Erie
leeping cars in fS43 that non-plushed
10Th Pullman and Wagner THE en-
ire foundation of both their claims
vas In those cars. The testimony, or
curse, would defeat Pullman, but 1t
would leave Wagner with no more le-
al ownership in the sleeping car idea
han Pullman had. The result was
hat both Pullman and Wagner wise
Y concluded that 1t would not be well
o go any further in the legal test of
heir rights" and agreed to a COM
roniss, by which they continued to
hare in the profits of an invention
'hich was old long before either or
8 claimants had thought of making it
is own.
The story of those pioneer sleeping