Los Angeles County
Biographies
CASSIUS MASON GAY
GAY, CASSIUS MASON, Refrigerating Engineer and Inventor, Los Angeles, California, was born at North East, Pennsylvania, November 17, 1862, the son of Ira R. Gay and Diana (Mason) Gay. He married Julia I. Fessenden at Chicago, Illinois, September 20, 1885, and to them there have been born six children, Byron S., Norman H., Ira F., Edith A., Bertha A. and Cassius Mason Gay, Jr.
Mr. Gay received a public school education, graduating from the Westfield, New York, High School in 1880, and followed this with a year’s study at Bryant & Stratton’s Commercial College, Buffalo, New York, and later took a post-graduate course in mathematics and physics under a private tutor.
His father being engaged in the flour milling business, Mr. Gay’s first work was in that line. After remaining in that business for some time, he left his father to become Secretary to the General Manager of the Flint & Pere Marquette Railroad. He remained in that capacity until 1884, when he resigned to take a position with the Consolidated Ice Machine Company of Chicago. He was with this concern about six years then, in 1890, organized the Carthage Ice & Cold Storage Company, at Carthage Mo. Mr. Gay held the controlling interest in the company and also served as General Manager. In 1893 he sold his interest and went to Winfield, Kansas, where he organized the Winfield Ice & Cold Storage Company.
This company he conducted until1895 and then sold out to J. P Baden, at the same time being appointed Manager of the Baden interests. The capital of the Company being steadily increased, its operations were similarly broadened until, in 1900, the produce business it handled was the largest of any plant in the West. While managing the Winfield business Mr. Gay had, in 1896, designed and erected the Southern Ice & Cold Storage Company’s plant at Fort Worth, Texas.
In 1897, Mr. Gay went abroad and investigated the development and practice of Refrigeration in foreign countries.
In 1900 Mr. Gay severed his connection with the Baden interests to become Manager of the Pittsburg office of The Vilter Manufacturing Company, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He also acted as Consulting Engineer and Refrigerating Expert for the Company, maintaining his headquarters in Pittsburg until the year 1905, when he transferred to Los Angeles as General Coast Representative for his Company. There he has taken a leading position among professional men.
In 1907, Mr. Gay was sought out by the Santa Fe Railroad Company to solve the problem of pre-cooling fruits directly in cars so that they could be transported great distances. He conducted a series of experiments and other investigations into the conditions of railroad refrigerator service, and the result was the designing and patenting by him of a system of pre-cooling in cars which upon trial proved so entirely successful that the Santa Fe Railroad adopted his designs and patents and built a great pre-cooling and icing station at San Bernardino, California. This plant was designed and constructed by Mr. Gay. It has an ice-making capacity of 80,000 tons of ice per annum, ice storage capacity of 30,000 tons, a pre-cooling capacity of 120 cars per day, and a car icing capacity of 240 cars per day.
Experts acknowledge this to be the largest and most efficient plant of its kind in the world, and the pre-cooling of fruits by the trainload prior to their being shipped to distant markets marked an epoch in the history of transportation. Mr. Gay, with his system of balanced air circulation in cars, not only shortened the time of handling and transportation of perishable fruits, but also made certain the preservation of their fresh qualities. This means much to California, adding greatly to the value of her large fruit industry.
For many years a contributor to leading engineering journals and a recognized authority in refrigeration, his inventions in the new field of railroad pre-cooling work has placed him in the first rank as a successful pioneer and inventor in this field.
Mr. Gay is a member of the International and American Association of Refrigerating Engineers. He is also a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and in fraternal circles is a Thirty-second Degree Mason. His clubs are the Los Angeles Athletic and the Athenian, of Oakland, California.
Transcribed 3-30-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 224,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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