Cook County IL Archives Biographies.....Cobb, Zenas 1817 - 
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Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com August 25, 2007, 5:42 am

Author: A T Andreas

William A. Angell, purchasing agent of Pullman's Palace Car Company, is one of 
the oldest of the officials of that company, and one who, since his long 
residence in this city, has made an enviable record for probity, industry and 
perseverance.

In connection with the palace-car portion of the railroad interests of this 
city, a sketch of Zenas Cobb is given. From that biography can be gathered the 
claims that gentleman makes to the invention of a sleeping-car:

Zenas Cobb, inventor of the sleeping-car and an early citizen and business man 
of Chicago, came here in 1845. He comes of a stock where industry and 
intelligence have been leading characteristics. His father, Zenas, and mother, 
Eleanor, were old residents of New York State, the former being quite 
celebrated as an inventor in his time. To him is credited the first church 
clock and the steel audiphone, and he also invented the first machine for 
making wooden screws. He was foreman in the foundry of Dr. Knott, the college 
president at Schenectady, and up to the time of leaving business was famous as 
a progressive man in ironmongery. The son received his education in his native 
place, Albany, where he was born on September 19, 1817, and at the age of 
seventeen entered a type-foundry and learned the rudiments of that trade. In 
1836, he joined his brother Elijah, in the boating business, and they ran two 
or three boats from Hammondsport, on Crooked Lake, to New York. He abandoned 
this service about four years later and came West, settling at Cleveland and 
assuming charge of the business of his brother, Ansel R. Cobb, then largely 
engaged in marine business. He remained with him for five years and then came 
to Chicago. Mr. Cobb's first venture was in the lumber line, and his yard was 
an old landmark near the junction of the two branches of the river, at Fulton 
Street. He associated two partners with him in the business, but was 
unfortunate in his dealings with them, and for nearly twelve years was 
involved in litigation over their connection with the business. In 1857, Mr. 
Cobb went into the real-estate business, and continued in that line until ten 
years after the panic, during that period devoting his time to invention, and 
meanwhile handling many pieces of property that have had a  historical bearing 
in the progress of the city. In 1853, Mr. Cobb invented the sleeping-car 
berth, being five or six years in advance of inventors in this line, who came 
later into the field. He did not fully comprehend the value of the invention 
at that time, for like all innovations it evoked some prejudice. George M. 
Pullman made Mr. Cobb an offer of $4,000 for his device, which the latter 
accepted. Although Mr. Cobb claims to be the original inventor of the system 
of sleeping cars, yet the practical application of the device and its 
utilization by improvements which have constantly arisen from time to time, is 
due to Mr. Pullman, says Mr. Cobb, as is the credit of their present utility 
and the necessity which they have become to the traveling public. Therefore, 
in strict justice it may be said, that with Mr. Cobb originated the embryo, 
but to Mr. Pullman is due its development, culture and utility. The original 
combination of forming a bed from a seat and back was implied in the letters-
patent, and several minor improvements went with the same. In 1867, Mr. Cobb 
was attracted to the Pennsylvania oil regions by the excitement of the hour, 
his genius finding new fields for the exercise of its inventive abilities. He 
was given charge of the Humboldt refining works, at Plummer, Venango Co., and 
there invented a new system for the continuous distillation of oil through one 
cylinder. Mr. Cobb's invention triplicated the quantity of oil in treatment 
and simplified the cleaning process by connected stills, so as to feed at one 
end and draw the residuum from the other. The result was a production of 
better oil and an advanced run of from sixty to four hundred barrels a day; 
and had the apparatus been of the size now employed, as high as three thousand 
barrels could have been produced. Mr. Cobb, engrossed with business, neglected 
to patent this valuable invention, and others, perceiving its utility, 
modified its form and benefited by the primal results of his genius. In 1869, 
Mr. Cobb returned to Chicago and engaged in the manufacture of car-seat 
springs at No. 292 West Adams Street, supplying the entire Pullman service in 
this line. In 1875, he removed to the corner of Dearborn and Kinzie streets, 
where he remained until early in 1885, when he abandoned that business and 
engaged in fruit-growing at Los Angeles, Cal., his health demanding a change 
of climate. His inventions, embracing a theater - seat, patent plow and other 
important improvements, cover many branches of general utility, but he has 
made a specialty of none of these, his executive force seeming to lie in rapid 
construction, prompt operation, and as ready an application to some new demand 
of necessity as it arises. Mr. Cobb has two sons, named Samuel B. and Henry 
B., both of whom were formerly associated with him in the car-seat spring 
industry, and who are now engaged in this city. At an advanced age, Mr. Cobb 
is still in a vigorous prime, although failing eyesight has clouded the 
complete enjoyment of the ripened years of a life well-spent. His mission has 
been busy and successful, and from his advent into Chicago until the present 
time, his career has been one of honorable business enterprise, of strict 
personal integrity, and of practical usefulness to the community of which he 
is a valued and esteemed member.


Additional Comments:
Source: History of Chicago, Vol II page 232, By AT Andreas, Chicago: The AT 
Andreas Company, Publishers, 1885

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