This Pullman booklet, “Hidden Mechanism of the Pullman Car,” is number eight in a series of twelve booklets highlighting information about the Pullman Company. Pullman Company was founded by George Pullman (1831 – 1897) in 1867. The company used paper car wheels, invented by Richard Allen (1827 – 1890), providing train travelers a quieter and smoother ride than conventional cast iron wheels. Paper car wheels were railway car wheels made with a steel rim and an iron hub with an interlayer of laminated paper. The company started building luxury sleeper cars with carpeting, draperies, upholstered chairs, card tables, and offered unparalleled customer service to train travelers. By 1933, over 9,500 Pullman cars covered the railway system.

During the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition, the Travel and Transportation Building included a Pullman company display. The exhibit presented one of the first Pullman first sleeper cars, “Old Number 9,” and its newest car, “George M. Pullman.” Remodeled from a Chicago and Alton day coach, the “Old Number 9” had plush seats, heat by stoves, sleeping berths, kerosene lamps, and was the model of luxury in its day. The company’s newest all-aluminum sleeping car, “George M. Pullman,” represented three years of research and design and offered new features in temperature control and air filter quality. The Pullman Company became so well known for their sleeper cars that many people referred a sleeper car as a Pullman.