Discomfort of Old-Time Railroad During
a Night Ride Gave Young Inventor
Idea for Sleeping-Cars.
George Mortimer Pullman, inventor of the Pullman car, was born on a farm
in Chautauqua County, New York, in 1831. The family was poor, and when
George was fourteen years old his mother became ill, and he was forced to
leave school and go to work in a country store. He stayed there three
years, and was then apprenticed to his brother in Albion, New York, to
learn the cabinet-making business.
There wasn't much money to be gained, but in 1859 he had saved a few
hundred dollars, and when the widening of the Erie Canal made it necessary
to pull down or move the buildings along its bank he went into the
business of house-moving.
He had been drawn to the work in the first place by the idea of getting
the hard wood that entered into the construction of some of the buildings.
This was cheap, and some of it was suitable for cabinet-making. But the
profit was not great, and the field for the sale of his goods had not
increased. So he turned to house-moving, and by this greatly increased the
amount of money at his command.
It was at this time that he got the idea of an improved sleeping-car. One
night he was riding from Buffalo to Westfield, a distance of sixty miles,
and the rattling and jolting of the cars as they swung around the curves
or banged over the uneven roadbed made sleep almost impossible.
At that time the bunks provided were nothing more than three tiers of
shelves similar to the bunks on the canal boats. It was necessary on
rounding a curve to hold on tight to keep from being spilled out on the
car floor. A person could recline in such a bunk, but it would have been
foolhardy to try to sleep.
The unusual roughness and discomfort of the trip set Pullman to thinking,
and during the six hours occupied by the run he considered the question in
various ways. Before the end of the journey was reached he had decided to
build a car in which it would be possible to sleep, and which would also
give passengers as much comfort as the space at command permitted.
Young Pullman was not able then to put his idea into operation, for none
of the railroad officials would listen to him, and he did not have the
necessary money to carry on his experiments independently. He earned the
money, however, in the work he did in Chicago. The whole city was being
raised so that a sewerage system could be introduced.
Before that time Chicago was on a level with Lake Michigan, and during
storms the water frequently backed into the cellars, and there was not
fall enough to carry waste out into the lake. The work of raising
buildings or removing them was in Pullman's line, and during the few years
it lasted he made money quickly.
Then he set to work to carry out his ideas about sleeping-cars. He took
two old passenger coaches and refitted them, and went to the head of the
Chicago and Alton Railroad and asked that they be given a trial.
"All right," said the president; "go ahead. We won't charge you for the
use of the road during the trial."
The trial showed that there was a demand for more comfortable cars, but
none of the roads was willing to put any money into the scheme. This
necessitated more experimenting by Pullman, at his own expense, and in
1863 he built, at a cost of eighteen thousand dollars, a car that was
equipped throughout according to his plans.
Pullman's First Sleeping-Car.
This first sleeping-car, the "Pioneer," embodied many of the features of
the modern Pullman, but it was condemned by practically every railroad man
in the country as a wild extravagance, for the ordinary sleeping-car of
the time cost only four thousand dollars.
The "Pioneer" lay in the train-shed most of the time during the first year
of its existence, but whenever it was used the demand for berths in it was
promising.
This led James F. Joy, president of the Michigan Central, to give a
half-hearted consent to experiments on his road. Pullman took every cent
of money he possessed and as much money as he could borrow, and built four
cars. They cost twenty-four thousand dollars each, and when Joy learned
how much money had been expended on them it amazed him so much that he was
on the point of ordering a discontinuance of all experiments.
Joy held up the trial for a month, and then allowed the cars to go out
only on condition that each one be accompanied by an old-style car. The
old cars were deserted. People preferred to pay two dollars for a berth in
a Pullman car, rather than fifty or seventy-five cents for a bunk in the
jolting, springless cars.
Still, the railroad men could not see the advisability of investing
twenty-five thousand dollars or more--for Pullman's plans grew in
expensiveness all the time--in cars, and they steadfastly turned down his
requests that they give him orders to build cars and buy the cars when
they were finished. This led him to determine to build the cars and rent
them.
Investors did not flock to him, but he got together enough to start
operations, and the five cars he already had on the rail were earning
money. During the first year he did not add any new cars, but the next
year he put several out, and they were a huge success--the company that
year earning two hundred and eighty thousand dollars.
The big roads centering in Chicago were pushing out in all directions. The
transcontinental roads were open for business. The ending of the Civil War
had paved the way to railroad extension in the South. All these facts gave
new opportunities for Pullman's business.
In the second year the company earned still larger profits, reaching the
four-hundred-thousand-dollar mark. Its income went on steadily up to a
million dollars, and still on until it passed beyond twenty millions.
Before this stage was attained, however, Pullman found that his factory
had outgrown its Chicago quarters, and all the surrounding land was held
at prohibitive prices. He determined to break away from the city, so he
went out several miles, and for eight hundred thousand dollars purchased a
thirty-five-hundred-acre tract. Here he built the city of Pullman, raising
the ground from the level of the prairie, so that the mistake Chicago had
made would not be repeated, and planning everything on such a scale that
no future changes were necessary.
For a year Pullman had four thousand men constantly employed in raising
the ground, laying out streets, and building shops and residences. When
they finished he was ready for the seven thousand employees engaged in
building the Pullman cars.