Invention and Innovation

Invention and Innovation. . , The Pullman Car Works embodied George Pullman's ideal of orderly, profitable industry., George Pullman used innovative thinking, scientific methods, and practical inventions to build railroad cars. Workers and managers of the Pullman Palace Car Company, including Albert Pullman, George's older brother, developed improved tools, machinery, and equipment. George Pullman's business success was supported by his aggressive acquisition and defense of patents on inventions., In 1880, Pullman purchased a massive 350-ton Corliss industrial steam engine to power the Car Works' machinery. Distributing the Corliss Engine's power required 3,000 feet of underground ducts and more than two miles of overhead shafts, belts, and pulleys. Wood scraps and sawdust from car-building operations helped fuel the engine's huge boilers.,

The Wood Machine Shop was opened in the spring 1881... It was a hard task to get started.... As the work advanced, however, we began to design special tools... and at the present time we have the most advanced machinery and are doing more work on our machines than any other shop in the business." , William Berry, foreman, Wood Machine Shop, April 1917

, [Captions:] , Left This massive engine, invented by George Corliss, drove mechanical power through underground shafts to the Wood Machine Shop and car erecting shops from April 1881 until it was scrapped in 1910., Bottom Left Norman W. Robinson came to Pullman in 1880 as the Car Works' chief mechanical engineer. He invented a new transfer table to move car bodies, shown here in his 1882 US patent application., BOTTOM The Pullman Car Works survived by adapting to new technologies, business trends, and population changes. In September 1918, both white and African-American workmen hoisted large buckets with hydraulic pistons, while an electric crane lifted a casting.