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Andrew Smith Hallidie
(16 Mar 1836 - 24 Apr 1900)
English-American engineer and inventor who built the cable car system first used on the steep hills of San Francisco streets.
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Quotes by others about Andrew Smith Hallidie (2)
If any one should ask me what I consider the most distinctive, progressive feature of California, I should answer promptly, its cable-car system. And it is not alone its system which seems to have reached a point of perfection, but the amazing length of the ride that is given you for the chink of a nickel. I have circled this city of San Francisco, … for this smallest of Southern coins.
In Letters from California (1888), 33.
Here we come to a new and peculiar street railway … There is no steam on board. You ask how is this train propelled? Between the track and under ground is a cable running upon rollers for the length of the road…
In Travels with Jottings: From Midland to the Pacific (1880), 33.
See also:
- 16 Mar - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Hallidie's birth.
- Andrew Smith Hallidie - The Practical Hero of Invention - from Heroes of California: The Story of The Founders of the Golden State (1910).
- 1 Aug - short biographies, births, deaths and events on date of cable car service inauguration.
- Cable Car Days in San Francisco, by Edgar Myron Kahn. - book suggestion.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
