San Francisco County
Biographies
ANDREW
SMITH HALLIDIE
Andrew
Smith Hallidie, inventor of the cable railway. Incidents unimportant in themselves, have led
to many of the greatest discoveries and inventions which mark the progress of
the human race. A falling apple observed
by Newton heralded the discovery
of the law of gravitation, that mighty force which holds the wheeling worlds in
their courses. A boiling tea-kettle
inspired in the mind of Watt the birth-thought of the steam engine. A spider’s web across the garden walk
suggested the suspension bridge. In
other instances an appeal to a sympathetic heart has been the inspiration of
inventive minds whose creations have enrolled them in history among the world’s
benefactors. The fall of one of the
horses struggling up a hill with a loaded street car in San Francisco excited the pity of a
beholder and led him to the invention of the cable railway, which has
revolutionized the method of travel in large cities.
Mr.
Hallidie, the gentleman referred to, is a native of Scotland, born in 1836. In early youth he studied civil engineering
and subsequently worked three years in a shop.
At the age of seventeen he came to California and spent several years
in the mines, dividing the time between searching for gold, surveying roads and
constructing water ways. Before he had
passed his twenty-first birthday, young Hallidie had
built a suspension bridge and aqueduct across the middle fork of the American
river with a span of 220 feet, the cross section of the conduit being three
feet by two. He also designed and put in
operation a number of important improvements in mining apparatus. A sudden rise of the river in 1855 having
swept away everything he had previously earned, Mr. Hallidie
set about retrieving his loss with doubled energy. He ran a quartz mill in 1856, and spent the
following year in improvising machinery on the middle fork of the American
river. Here he made and put in operation
the first wire rope ever used on the Pacific coast. It was employed for transporting the ore from
a quartz mine to the stamp mill, was 1,600 feet in length and operated on an
incline of twenty-four degrees. Turning
his mechanical genius to good purpose, he devoted his spare time to sharpening
and repairing tools for the miners, at which he made $15 to $20 a day.
In
1857 he surveyed and ran the tunnel for a water way through a spur of a
mountain, using instruments made by himself on the
ground, and his levels run from opposite sides met midway within half an
inch! About this time the Indians were
troublesome, robbing and murdering the whites; and Mr. Hallidie,
having borrowed and repaired all the old guns he could secure, he and some
twenty others pursued and captured two bands of the red marauders; but before
reaching the settlement with their prisoners they were snowed in for nearly a
month in the mountains, and the whole party narrowly escaped perishing. Six years—1852—’58—were passed by him amid
the exciting and perilous experiences of pioneer life as a prospector and
engineer—years full of adventure and hazardous experiences not distasteful to
one of his daring spirit. On one
occasion he narrowly escaped death from a premature explosion of a blast at the
entrance of a 600-foot tunnel. Soon
after this he was entombed by a caving bank of earth; and when completing his
suspension bridge the scaffolding gave way and precipitated him upon the rocks
twenty feet below. At another time he
was carried over the fall and rapids of the American river a mile and a half,
clinging to a stick of timber.
For
a number of years Mr. Hallidie was engaged in
designing and erecting bridges,—chifly [sic]
suspension bridges,—of which he built some fourteen on the Pacific slope, of
220 to 350 foot span. In 1858 he
established a manufactory of wire rope in San Francisco, in which he has been
successfully engaged ever since, and which he has developed into the
“California Wire Works,” an organization with half a million dollars capital,
of which he is president and managing head, and giving employment to 225 men.
His
experience in inventing and operating aerial wire-rope ways in the mines for
transporting ore and other heavy material over rough mountain surfaces prepared
him for his greater invention, the cable railway, a few years later. It was on an unpleasant day in 1869 that he
witnessed the fall of a horse, before mentioned in this article, while it and
four others were striving in vain to draw a car filled with passengers up Jackson street hill. The harsh treatment of the poor animals and
their mute appeal for sympathy touched his heart, and he then and there
resolved to devise a more humane and effective method than horse-power for
propelling cars over the hilly streets of San Francisco; and in spite of
numerous onerous private and official duties demanding his attention, he set
about solving the problem with his characteristic energy and determination. Many serious obtacles
[sic] and difficulties confronted him on every hand, not the least of which
were the discouragements thrown in his way by the faithless persons who assumed
the role of adverse advisers and obstructionists; but with unswerving
persistency he pursued his purpose, neither halting or faltering, enlisting the
interest and support of two or three friends to whom he had submitted his
designs and plans in 1871, and who had firm confidence in his genius to achieve
success.
Clay street was selected on which to
build the experimental cable line, because on this street the road would
traverse Russian hill, one of the highest points in the city, reaching an
altitude of 307 feet from the starting on Kearny street, and thus would be
presented all the difficulties likely to be encountered on any other
street. In June, 1873, ground was broken
and the work of the construction begun, under the personal supervision of the
inventor; and on the first day of August that year, at four
o’clock
in the morning, the trial trip was successfully made. Then was demonstrated for
the first time in the world’s history the practicability of propelling street
cars by a stationary engine, through the medium of an endless wire cable
running below the surface of the street.
Mr. Hallidie had solved the problem of street
travel in cities without obstructing general traffic, and made it possible to
build cities on hills without marring the beauty of the natural landscape.
After
three years and a half of successful operation of the Clay street cable railway, the Sutter street line was built in San Francisco. Other roads of the kind were rapidly built in
this and other cities, until there are now hundreds of miles of cable roads in
operation in the United States. Great Britain, Australia and even China have adopted this
improved mode of transportation, which is destined to extend to all the
principals cities of the world.
For
years Mr. Hallidie was absorbed in his great
invention, perfecting it in all its details and taking out a number of patents,
in foreign countries as well as in the United States. For further particulars, see page 303.
In
addition to these he has secured patents on nearly a hundred other mechanical
devices, covering an extensive field and placing him in the front rank of noted
inventors of this prolific age. Despite
his wonderful activity in this channel, he has given much thought and effort to
scientific questions and enterprises. In
1868 he was elected president of the Mechanics’ Institute of San Francisco, and
filled the office for ten successive years during the most critical period of
its existence, and through his self-sacrificing devotion to its interests paid
off thousands of dollars of its indebtedness, and left the office with
thousands of dollars to its credit and the Institute occupying a position of
commanding prominence. He is one of the
trustees of the mechanical school endowed by the late James Lick with $450,000;
he has served as a member of the Board of Regents of the University of California for twenty-one years,
being chairman of the finance committee.
He was also one of the founders of the San Francisco public library; is
a leading, active member of the Manufacturers’ Association of the State, having
served three years as its president; was the prime mover in organizing the
Society for the Suppression of Vice, and the Boys and Girls’ Society; was one
of the founders of the San Francisco Art Society; is a member of the California
Academy of Sciences, and of the Geographical Society of San Francisco; was
president of the San Francisco Industrial Association from 1868 to 1878; also a
member of the State Historical Society, and of the American Geographical
Society of New York, and is now serving on the San Francisco Executive Board of
the World’s Columbian Exposition for 1892-’93.
On
national questions Mr. Hallidie is a Republican, was
a member of the County Executive Committee, and was at one time a nominee for
the State Senate; is vice-president for California of the National
Protective Tariff League.
Even
these multitudinous interests and responsibilities have not fully occupied his
wonderfully energetic and active mind, which has in its researches reached out
beyond the confines of the Pacific slope and of this continent. Besides traveling extensively in this
country, he has visited Europe and Australia, and has attended
several of the great international expositions and spent some time at several
of the most celebrated technical schools.
Numerous published articles from his potent pen and addresses attest his
marked ability to deal with live questions of interest and importance to the
public weal. Among these may be
mentioned his address before the Mechanics’ Institute on “Trade Tuition: its
Status at Home and Abroad:” his paper read before the Manufacturers’
Association of California on the “Position of the Manufacturer in San Francisco;” and numerous articles
in the daily press. In the Overland
Monthly, of April and May, 1890, was “A Study of Skilled-Labor
Organizations;” and his report to the convention of Pacific Coast Chamber of
Commerce on the Canadian Pacific Railroad, and numerous addresses before
scientific and social organizations, have also been published.
In
his wide business and social relations, Mr. Hallidie
is esteemed and honored for his gentlemanly qualities and his affable
manner. He possesses a highly nervous
temperament, a strongly sympathetic nature, and is intensely loyal to the
interests of society and of the Golden State.
For
his wife he married Miss Mattie Woods, a native of Quincy, Illinois, and daughter of
pioneer settlers in Sacramento.
Transcribed by Donna L. Becker
Source: "The Bay of San Francisco," Vol. 2,
pages 112-115, Lewis Publishing Co, 1892.
© 2005 Donna L.
Becker.
California Biography Project
San Francisco
County
California
Statewide
Golden Nugget
Library