{"product_id":"the-railroad-passenger-car-an-illustrated-history-of-the-first-hundred-years-with-accounts-by-contemporary-passengers","title":"The Railroad Passenger Car: An Illustrated History of the First Hundred Years, with Accounts by Contemporary Passengers","description":"209 pp. Railroad travel in the nineteenth century was often dangerous, dirty, uncomfortable, and uncertain. Yet at the same time, most of the inventions associated with the luxury of a later era--from sleeping cars and dining cars to streamlining and even an early form of air conditioning--had already made their appearance by the time of the Civil War. In The Railroad Passenger Car August Mencken offers a fascinating look at the achievements and contradictions of this key period in railroad history. Drawing on a wide assortment of materials--including a wealth of drawings from the U.S. Patent Office, first-hand accounts of contemporary passengers, and his own experience as a young civil engineer active in railroad construction--Mencken presents the roster of cars in which nineteenth-century travelers rode and suffered. Here are the weird and ingenious inventions designed to increase both the passengers' comfort and the owners' revenue; and here are the passengers' own comments, both angry and humorous--thirty-five accounts written by passengers from 1831 to 1891 and bearing such titles as \"An Inhuman Conductor,\" \"The Baggage Smashers of Omaha,\" and \"Cows on the West Chester Line.\"","brand":"The John Hopkins Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40129701904454,"sku":"2326240","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1232\/9510\/products\/2326240.jpg?v=1655579163","url":"https:\/\/ym-demo.myshopify.com\/products\/the-railroad-passenger-car-an-illustrated-history-of-the-first-hundred-years-with-accounts-by-contemporary-passengers","provider":"Yesterday's Muse","version":"1.0","type":"link"}