The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-06-14
RAILROAD NEWS.
How a Topeka Office Clerk Made
Famous Invention.
Originated Ideas in the Pierce
Mail Crane.
is NOW A FARMER
Erastus Pierce a Clerk to III. ..
Nudge in 1892.
Other Items of General Interest
in Traffic World.

A railroad clerk in Topeka many
years ago who took seriously a
chance expression from his superior
official has become famous in this
country. The clerk was Erastus
Pierce and the officer who touched off
the fuse of his reputation is H. U.
Nudge. now president Of the Rock
Island lines.
Pierce is the inventor of what is now
known as the pierce Mail Crane"
mail catching device used in almost
every state In the Union on all of
the big railway systems in the United
States.
1t happened this way.
One day H. U. Nudge, who was then
general superintendent of the Santa
Fe in Topeka, slammed the door or
his private office with a telegram in
his hand.
other failure on the Santa Fer
stormed the general superintendent.
Then turning to Pierce who was
sitting near by he roared:
pierce, what the Santa Fe needs is
a man who can invent a crane tnat
will stand the wear and tear-and we
need him quick"
Then Mr.. Nudge went back in his
office in a better frame of mind-he
had expressed himself of his senti-
ments.
But Pierce cook it seriously. When
his general superintendent had stated
that the Santa Fe was in need of an
inventor and when he said it to him.
he resolved then and there that he
Nudge needed.
Nothing more was said about 1t I'M
til a few months afterward when Clerk
Pierce asked that he might speak with
the general superintendent.
The other clerks in the office shook
IyTnvUiDO1U and laughed.
Hes goin' to ask the boss for
raise" they said.
1t was two hours before the clerk
came back into the clerical office
two hours with the boss! That was
enough to excite the suspicion of
every clerk in the room.
But in that two hours Pierce had
revlutioniZed the mail crane system or
the Santa Fe-and all over the rail-
road world. He had proved to Mr..
struction of mail cranes were Just
what were needed to put a stop to the
many failures that had been sleep
loser to all railway officials.
A patent was applied for and
granted and the crane was constructed
on the plan of Erastus Pierce. Later
the crane was manufactured by big
tompanies-and Pierce didn't receive
a cent in royalties. He didn't ask for
it, His superior officer had asked for
an Improvement, and it was his duty
to make it-according to his ideas.
Many of the older officials and
clerks in the Santa Fe offices in To-
peka remember Pierce. He was a
very quiet fellow-and spent all of
his spare time reading up on mechani-
cal and scientific matters.
In the office he was a wonder. His
memory was the asset Of the file
room.
At one time he kept the office rec
ords. The four walls of the room
were lined with big letter files-hun-
dreds of them with thousands of let
tiers. In speaking of one of his feats
a Santa F'e official said today:
zone day a man came over to the
desk used by Pierce and found him
with his head buried in the records as
usual.
Pierce. I want to see letter on a
Topeka station construction matter
written about ten years ago.
"Pierce never looked up. But in
his slow and deliberate way he said ::
Look in the tenth box from the south
end on the fifteenth shelf under the
letter T and you'll find it,
Pierce started his railroad work as
stenographer under Mr.. Nudge when
he was superintendent of the Rio
Grande division of. the Santa Fe. Lat
er he was a clerk in the Topeka office
when Mr.. Nudge was general superin-
tendent.
Pierce is now farming in Michigan.
Mr.. Nudge is president of the Rock
Island lines. And the mail crane is
doing excellent service on thousands
of miles of railroads in the United
States.