| Even today, over one hundred years later, when | | | | Navy. A beginner in armament manufacture, Cowen |
| people hear the name Lionel, they think of electric | | | | managed to build the detonators and deliver them to |
| model trains. Before Lionel trains came on the scene, a | | | | the Brooklyn Navy Yard, galloping to the yard pulling a |
| young inventor, Joshua Lionel Cowen, received his first | | | | horse-drawn wagon, loaded with fuses and on |
| patent, a patent for an invention that caused a | | | | time.Cowen teamed up with Harry C. Grant to found |
| photographer's flash to ignite. Shortly after the patent | | | | the Lionel Manufacturing Company without even |
| was awarded, Cowen installed a small motor | | | | having a product to build. They tried electric fans but |
| underneath a model railroad flatcar. The car, driven by | | | | knew when winter arrived their product sales would |
| a battery on 30 inches of track, signaled the advent of | | | | tank. Ever on the lookout for a good product, Cowen |
| the Lionel model train. | | | | saw a push train in a lower Manhattan toy store |
| Joshua was born on the Lower East Side in | | | | window. The push train stimulated his imagination to |
| Manhattan on 10/25/1877. An excellent student, Cowen | | | | produce a vision of a self-propelled train. The vision |
| loved to play with mechanical toys. He became | | | | became the legend. |
| captivated by electricity, studying how it was | | | | The Electric Express, Lionel's first train, became a |
| transmitted and how it was stored in batteries. At age | | | | display for toy shops, though not a toy. This first train, |
| 16, Cowen was accepted to the College of New York. | | | | an open gondola, was propelled by Cowen's fan |
| A series of revolving doors into and then out of | | | | motor. To become a marketable toy, the distribution of |
| schools of higher learning began. His genius did not lie in | | | | electricity would have to reach the tipping point for the |
| formal education but in his hands. This became evident | | | | number of American homes with power. |
| when he dropped out for the last time and became an | | | | Eventually 12 of the Electric Express Trains were sold. |
| apprentice to Henner and Anderson, a dry cell battery | | | | Every year from 1901 the line evolved. In 1902 a trolley |
| manufacturer. His tinkering and experimenting proved | | | | and two foot suspension bridge were added. In 1902 |
| important when in 1899 he patented the ignition devise | | | | the materials used to produce the gondola changed |
| for photographs' flash powder by heating a wire fuse | | | | from wood to metal. An electric B&O locomotive and |
| using a dry cell battery. | | | | a derrick car were produced to expand the product |
| He grew into more sophisticated detonation when he | | | | line. |
| won a defense contract to arm 24,000 mines for the | | | | |