Short Electric Railway Company

Cleveland: Clark-Britton Printing Co, 1890. About very good.. [36]pp. Oblong small folio. Embossed and printed wrappers, rivet bound at gutter margin. Light wear to wraps. Contemporary ownership inscription on front free endpaper. Minor dust soiling and dampstaining; occasional faint foxing. An attractive and well-produced photographic promotional for the Short Electric Railway Company of Cleveland, Ohio. The firm was the brainchild of native Ohioan Sidney Howe Short, who studied physics and chemistry at Ohio State before moving to Denver in the 1880s to make a living as an inventor of electrical gadgets. In 1890, he returned to Cleveland, where with the backing of magnate Charles F. Brush he established the present company, which manufactured electric streetcar systems. The firm was successful enough that it was bought out by General Electric in 1892. The present promotional is a testament to his success, with images and descriptions of Short's trolley lines installed in cities and towns across the Midwest and with glowing testimonials from their owners and municipal leaders. Several leaves also depict detailed drawings of machinery designed by Short, accompanied by descriptions of their function. The "Trolley King," as Short became known, died quite young, but not before obtaining over 500 patents for electrical inventions and improvements. Scarce; we locate only one copy of this work, at Yale.