Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 197, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1916 — Earliest Smoking Car. [ARTICLE]

Earliest Smoking Car.

Now that a railroad carriage ibuilt in 1830 has been placed on exhibition at Waterloo, perhaps the earliest smoking carriage may be unearthed by the fereat Eastern railroad, which claims to have built the first for September, 1846. A first-class saloon, 40 feet in length, the ends being converted into a kind of open lounge, while inside the “Divan,” as it was termed, morrocco leather sofas, mahogany tables and self-balancing lamps were found. An official statement announced that “the peculiarity of a portion of the Cambridge and Newmarket traffic suggested to the company the formation of such a description of carriage." Evidently it was found impossible to prevent undergraduates out for a day’s racing from defying the stringent bylaws against smoking, which then existed. —London Chronicle.