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THE STORY OF THE PULLMAN CAR
CHAPTER I
THE BIRTH OF RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION
Since those distant days when man's migratory instinct first prompted him to find fresh hunting fields and seek new caves in other lands, human energy has been constantly employed in moving from place to place. The fear of starvation and other elementary causes prompted the earliest migrations. Conquest followed, and with increasing civilization came the establishment of constant intercourse between distant places for reasons that found existence in military necessity and commercial activity.
For centuries the sea offered the easiest highway, and the fleets of Greece and Rome carried the culture and commerce of the day to relatively great distances. Then followed the natural development of land communication, and at once arose the necessity not only for vehicles of transportation but for suitable roads over which they might pass with comfort, speed, and safety. Over the Roman roads the commerce of a great empire flowed in a tumultuous stream. Wheeled vehicles rumbled along the highways—heavy springless carts to carry the merchandise, lightly rolling carriages for the comfort of wealthy travelers.
The elementary principle still remains. The wheel and the paved way of Roman days correspond to the four-tracked route of level rails and the ponderous steel wheels of the mighty Mogul of today. In speed, scope, capacity, and comfort has the change been wrought.
The English stagecoach marked a sharp advance in the progress of passenger transportation. With frequent relays of fast horses a fair rate of speed was maintained, and comfort was to a degree effected by suspension springs of leather and by interior upholstery.
An interesting example of the height of luxury achieved by coach builders was the field carriage of the great Napoleon, which he used in the campaign of 1815. This carriage was captured by the English at Waterloo, and suffered the ignominious fate of being later exhibited in Madame Tussaud's wax-work show in London. The coach was a model of compactness, and contained a bedstead of solid steel so arranged that the occupant's feet rested in a box projecting beyond the front of the vehicle. Over the front windows was a roller blind, which, when pulled down admitted the air but excluded rain. The secrétaire was fitted up for Napoleon by Marie Louise, with nearly a hundred articles, including a magnificent breakfast service of gold, a writing desk, perfumes, and spirit lamp. In a recess at the bottom of the toilet box were two thousand gold napoleons, and on the top of the box were places for the imperial wardrobe, maps, telescopes, arms, liquor case, and a large silver chronometer by which the watches of the army were regulated. In such quarters did the great emperor jolt along over the execrable roads of Eastern Europe.
The stagecoach was established in England as a public conveyance early in the sixteenth century, and soon regular routes were developed throughout the country. Now for the first time a closed vehicle afforded travelers comparative comfort during their journey, and in the stagecoach with its definite schedule may be seen the early prototype of the modern passenger railroad. For three centuries the stagecoach slowly developed, and its popularity carried it to the continent and later to America. But by a radical invention transportation was suddenly transformed.
As early as the middle of the sixteenth century, and actually contemporaneous with the inception of the stagecoach, railways, or wagon-ways, had their origin. At first these primitive railways were built exclusively to serve the mining districts of England and consisted of wooden rails over which horse-drawn wagons might be moved with greater ease than over the rough and rutted roads.
The next step forward was brought about by the natural wear of the wheels on the wooden tracks, and consisted of a method of sheathing the rails with thin strips of iron. To avoid the buckling which soon proved a fault of this innovation, the first actual iron rails were cast in 1767 by the Colebrookdale Iron Works. These rails were about three feet in length and were flanged to keep the wagon wheels on the track.
For a number of years this simple type of railroad existed with little change. Over it freight alone was carried,
