Inventory
20.00 Linear Feet
April 2007
Revised: December 2009
Abstract
William H. Peterson worked at the Pullman-Standard Hammond, Indiana plant from 1947 to 1981. As part of the Research and Development Office, Mr. Peterson obtained sixty United States patents and over 100 foreign patents during his career. One of his most significant patents involved the Hydroframe-60 freight car, described in an article in the Chicago Daily Tribune, October 10, 1961, Section F, page 5:
Pullman Gets Patent on New Freight Car
Pullman, Inc., yesterday was granted a patent on its Hydroframe-60 freight car. The car, being fabricated by the Pullman-Standard division, is designed to provide complete lading and car protection at impact speeds of twelve miles an hour and more. The patent is based on an invention of William H. Peterson, of the Pullman-Standard division. Providing cushioned travel, the invention will eliminate freight and car damage and attract many classes of high revenue merchandise of the railroads, a spokesman said. Pullman-Standard termed the invention "the greatest single development in the railroad carbuilding field over the last 50 years." It added that it now is possible to redesign freight cars using substantially less material.
The William H. Peterson Papers include a large number of files produced by Mr. Peterson during his career at Pullman-Standard. The collection will be described in this finding aid as it gets processed for research and educational use. We are grateful to Mr. Peterson and his family for preserving these historically significant files in the Calumet Regional Archives at Indiana University Northwest. For questions regarding the Peterson Papers, please contact Archivist Stephen McShane at 219-980-6628 and/or email at smcshane@iun.edu.
| Box |
File |
Description |
| 1 |
1 |
Historical Information, William H. Peterson |
|
2 |
Correspondence, Elevation to Fellow, William H. Peterson, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1987 |
|
3 |
Correspondence, Arnold Stucki Award, William H. Peterson, 1987 |
|
4-5 |
Scrapbook, William H. Peterson, (1959-1962) |
|
6-8 |
Selected patents, William H. Peterson, (1954-1981) |
|
9-10 |
Selected original drawings, William H. Peterson, (1950-1980) |
|
11 |
Presentation,William H. Peterson, "Cushioning Requirements for Adequate Lading Protection," at the Union Pacific Railroad, Nov. 30, 1959 and the ASME Annual Meeting, Dec. 4, 1959 |
|
12 |
Presentation,William H. Peterson, "Cushioning Requirements for Adequate Lading Protection," at Materials Handling and Packaging Conference, Feb. 24, 1961 and Car Foremen's Association of Chicago, May 8, 1961 |
|
13 |
Presentation,William H. Peterson, "Dynamic Behavior of Lading in Freight Cars," Battelle Memorial Institute, Oct. 3, 1962 |
|
14 |
Presentation,William H. Peterson, "Physical Factors Affecting Damage to Package Commodities During Railroad Transport, Stockholm, September 1964 |
|
15 |
Presentation,William H. Peterson, Impact Hazard, RailCar Cushioning and its Relation to the Strength of Packages and Shipping Containers, Vienna, May 1966 |
|
16 |
Slide presentation script, "Pullman Standard Hydraulic Cushion," n.d. |
|
17 |
Correspondence, William H. Peterson, Presentations, 1967 |
|
18 |
Articles, William H. Peterson, Technisch-wissenschaft liche Beilage, 1965, 1967 |
|
19-21 |
Company Publications, Carbuilder, with articles on Hydroframe-60 Boxcar, (1954-1970) |
|
22 |
Historical information, William R. Peterson/Hartin F. Peterson/ Warren H. Peterson, all employees of Pullman-Standard at various times, (1947-1955) |
|
23 |
Historical information, Pullman-Standard Research and Development Department, 1957-1966 |
|
24 |
Summary, List of Pullman-Standard and competitors cushion underframe and end-of-car cusion unit cars, June 30, 1967 |
|
25 |
Articles, Pullman-Standard, 1971, 1977, 1985 |
|
26 |
Telephone directory, Pullman Incorporated, n.d. |
|
|
SERIES: FREIGHT (Note: The following listing is a preliminary inventory at the box level) |
| 2 |
|
Patent issues/searches |
|
|
Speeches by others on Hydroframe-60 Boxcar |
|
|
Damages in industry problems |
|
|
Competition |
| 3 |
|
Peterson Patent infringement trial briefs (Pullman-Standard vs. ACF) |
| 4 |
|
Patent infringement trial record |
| 5 |
|
General arrangement diagrams and other drawings |
| 6 |
|
Company publications, Carbuilder, various issues |
| 7 |
|
Cushioning |
| 8 |
|
Cushioning--fibre |
|
|
Carton info |
|
|
D & G |
|
|
Speed control--cushioning |
| 9 |
|
Cushioning--hydraulic |
|
|
German papers |
|
|
Pin calculations |
|
|
Standard car impacts/AAR certification tests |
|
|
Sales brochures |
|
|
ICC hearings |
| 10 |
|
Cushioning--lading tests, 20"-30" string |
|
|
Talbot EOC drawings--cushion |
| 11 |
|
Cushioning drawings, 1951-233 |
| 12 |
|
Impact information |
|
|
Various drawings |
| 13 |
|
New product areas |
|
|
Speed control device |
|
|
Impact indicator |
| 14 |
|
Speed control device |
| 15 |
|
Titanium wheel |
|
|
Brittle fracture |
|
|
Front draft lug |
| 16 |
|
Vendors--car components |
| 17 |
|
Advertising |
| 18 |
|
Misc. engineering information |
|
|
New product areas |
|
|
Marketing |
|
|
General car design |
| 19 |
|
Misc. engineering information |
|
|
Erie Lackawanna drawings |
|
|
NOTE: The collection includes an additional ten boxes dealing with passenger car information. Data on the contents of these boxes will be added to this preliminary inventory as the boxes are processed. |
Subject Tracings
- Hammond, Ind.
- Pullman-Standard Company
- Railroads
|
