Today's question comes from the back of the class near the windows.

What was the Prepayment Car Sales Company? Is it possible at this late date to track down a specific license number as embossed on a brass builders plate?

Wesley

Wesley,

I just spent about 15 minutes searching with Google and found a number of interesting references on the web. Best to do the search without placing quotation marks around the entire name. A number of the responses are for books that have been scanned as part of the project under Google.

There is a passing reference in Debra Brill's book about the Brill Company.

In a biographical book of important Chicago men there is an individual who was a VP of National Pneumatic and also was Treasurer of Prepayment Car.

Appears that the company licensed use of patented features related to various streetcar payment features.

Brian,

Thanks for the Google references. I am hoping to dig a little deeper via possible contacts here at RyPN.

The plate in question was removed from WRECo 650, our center door car, in 1944 when the car was shipped north to the care of the ERA and later Branford. The car was constructed by Brill in 1912.

Wesley

In March 1911, the Pay-As-You-Enter Car Corporation merged with the Pay-Within Car Co. and the National Pneumatic Company of Chicago resulting in formation of the Prepayment Car Sales Co., located at 50 Church St., New York City.(1)

Officers and directors elected at that time included:
Duncan McDonald, Pay-As-You-Enter Car Corp.,—president
A. B. England, Electric Service Supplies Co.—vice-president
Harold Rowntree, National Pneumatic Co.—treasurer
J. B. Burdett, Pay-Within Car Co.—secretary
Thomas W. Casey, Pay-As-You-Enter Car Corp.—general manager
W. D. Baldwin, Otis Elevator Co.—director
R. L. MacDuffie, Railway Improvement Co.—director(2)

The Prepayment Car Sales Company held the selling rights for the pay-as-you-enter cars under original patents.(3) The original patent was issued to Ross and McDonald on 26 September 1905.(4) In 1912, Judge Hough of the United States District Court upheld those patent rights, now held by the Prepayment Car Sales Co., against the Orange County Traction Co.(5)

However, litigation between the two companies over patent issues continued for some years, until the Supreme Court eventually denied the Prepayment Car Sales Company’s petition for a writ of certiorari to the second circuit court of appeals.(6)


______________________________
(1) “Metals,” Wall Street Journal, 3 March 1911, 3, http://www.proquest.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008); and "Prepayment Car Sales Co.,” Wall Street Journal, 20 March 1911, 5, http://www.proquest.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008).
(2) “Prepayment Car Sales Co.,” Wall Street Journal, 24 March 1911, 2, http://www.proquest.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008).
(3) “Hedley’s Patents Bring Big Returns,” New York Times, 1 Feb. 1916, 6, http://www.proquest.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008).
(4) “Doesn’t Have to Give Up Money,” Lincoln (Nebraska) Daily News, 6 Sept. 1912, 3, http://www.newspaperarchive.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008).
(5) “P-A-Y-E Patent Suit Sustained,” Wall Street Journal, 6 Sept. 1912, 6, http://www.proquest.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008).
(6) “Court Calendars,” New York Times, 18 Nov. 1912, 16, http://www.proquest.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008); “Court Calendars,” New York Times, 23 Oct. 1913, 12, http://www.proquest.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008); “Court Calendars,” New York Times, 4 Nov. 1913, 15, http://www.proquest.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008); and “The Legal Record,” Washington Post, 27 April 1915, 14, http://www.proquest.com (accessed 3 Dec. 2008).