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.