Headlamps – A Bit of History – 1909
A BIT OF HISTORY – The Daily Missoulian., November 22, 1909
W. T. Gifford, the Quick Lunch man, stood on the bridge last night as the special train of General Superintendent Barrett pulled in from the west. He noted the car of the superintendent – No. 93 – and he watched it with greater interest than ever. Turning to a Missoulian man, Mr. Gifford said: “I was the first white man employed by the Milwaukee as cook. That was back in ’84. One of my first assignments was to the car of C. H. Prior, who was then assistant general manager, and his car was the ninety –three. I wonder if that is the same car: I believe it is; certainly it has the same old number and the car looks natural. One night, while I was with Mr. Prior, we pulled out of St. Paul for Chicago; he was a man who liked to have somebody to talk to and, as we were alone on the car, he called me to sit with him in the observation room. As we crossed the long bridges over the Mississippi it was early in the evening; the steamer War Eagle of the Diamond Joe line was coming up stream and she had an electric headlight that kept turning back and forth, lighting up the whole river and the shores. It attracted Mr. Prior’s attention and he watched it intently. After a while he asked me what I thought of a headlight like that on a locomotive. It seemed to me like a good thing. Mr. Prior said he believed it was the best thing there could be. Soon after that a Milwaukee engine had the first electric headlight ever used on a locomotive. I wonder if that car is really the old ninety-three.