Emperor Norton for Safer Railroads

June 06, 2024 / John Lumea

Two things that have been on The Emperor Norton Trust’s radar for some time…

the Emperor’s contemporaneously reported invention of an automated mechanical railroad switch in September 1872 and
his Proclamation critiquing Andrew Smith Hallidie’s new cable car in September 1873

…don’t make the shortlist of highlights in most tellings of the Norton story.

It turns out that these are part of a larger focus on railroad safety that Emperor Norton had added to his portfolio of concerns by 1869 — the year of a Proclamation we discovered recently that we believe is previously unreported.

We document and provide context for the 1869 Proclamation here.

Also included is documentation of two other of our recent discoveries:

the first news report of Emperor Norton’s railroad switch invention, published in Mining and Scientific Press, a serious and well-respected San Francisco journal of technology-focused industry news, and
the second news report of the invention, which appeared in a Brooklyn, Calif., newspaper the day before the Pacific Appeal — the Emperor’s imperial gazette — published his own Proclamation about it.

What Did Andrew Smith Hallidie Know About Joshua Norton's Original Funding?

September 29, 2020 / John Lumea

The conventional “wisdom” is that Joshua Norton arrived in San Francisco in 1849 with a $40,000 bequest from the estate of his father, John Norton, who had died in 1848.

But, if Norton arrived with $40,000, he almost certainly didn’t get it from his father — who had died insolvent and broke.

So, what was the source of Joshua Norton’s original funding — $40,000 or otherwise?

Andrew Smith Hallidie, the “father of the cable car,” knew Joshua Norton as Emperor — and probably before that as well.

In 1888, Hallidie published an article suggesting that Norton had arrived in San Francisco as a “representative and confidant” of English backers.

This is quite different from the account one often hears.

The Emperor Championed an Airship Inventor Who Published This Map of San Francisco in 1875

April 22, 2016 / John Lumea

In July 1869, Emperor Norton issued a Proclamation urging his subjects to do everything in their power to advance the steam-powered airship experiments of Frederick Marriott. Six years later, in 1875, Marriott published a beautiful map of San Francisco.

The Emperor Norton Trust

Filtering by Tag: Andrew Smith Hallidie

Emperor Norton for Safer Railroads

What Did Andrew Smith Hallidie Know About Joshua Norton's Original Funding?

The Emperor Championed an Airship Inventor Who Published This Map of San Francisco in 1875