By Tom and Meg Coughlin
Railroad china collectors call it “Shape Collecting,” amassing a set of examples of a single, particular item used by various railroads–it offers railroad memorabilia collectors an opportunity to see how purchasing practices at one railroad line may have influenced other railroads, and offers an opportunity for a collector to appreciate railroad style.
Meet the Dolphin Cup— Introduced around 1940, and in continuous production until the Amtrak era, The Dolphin cup is a specialized china design that was adopted by several railroads for dining car service. Designed by Chicago and Northwestern Dining Car Superintendent William Dolphin, the patent record for Patent Number 2,189,136 indicates a filing date of January 9, 1939 and a final issuance date of February 6, 1940 (which provided patent protection until 1957). The patent record indicates that Dolphin was sole owner of the patent–he did not share it with his employers.
The text of the patent appears to cover twto separate aspects of the Dolphin Cup—the essential second inner rim which proved effective to reducing coffee spills on moving trains and passenger vessels. In addition, Dolphin included a second version of the cup in a unique shape. As he noted in the application: “a design thought by some to be more graceful and artistic (but) many other forms can be selected.”
The unusual shape was a marketing gimmick that worked, and several railroad dining car departments wound up using the cup. Syracuse China was the only manufacturing company involved in producing them–their double lip was a little complicated to do on the jiggering lathes. Ultimately, they only offered to sell them to transportation companies. It’s interesting to note that Dolphin himself was an elder statesman in the fraternity of dining car department managers, and there may have been a sense of tribute and homage among the other managers who adopted the design. Ultimately, the Milwaukee Road, the C&O (including its Pere Marquette subsidiary), the Illinois Central, the Wabash, the Denver and Rio Grande, and the Great Northern wound up using them.
In case you’re wondering–they do work, in terms of keeping coffee out of the saucer. They’re also pretty good-looking too!
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- The Pere Marquette appears to have ordered a few for their car service in the 1940s.
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- A collection of cups showing two version of the Illinois Central “Coral” pattern, and the Denver and Rio Grande Ry’s “Prospector” pattern.
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- Cups from the Great Northern (“Glory of the West” pattern), Chicago and Northwestern, and another from the Great Northern.
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- Cups in the C&O “Chessie”, “George Washington” and “Car Ferry” patterns. The C&O was an enthusiastic user of the Dolphin design.
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- Cups in the Milwaukee Road “Traveler” pattern, “Peacock”, and Wabash’s “Banner Blue”.
From a posting on Yahoo Groups e-mail list “The Milwaukee Road” you may want to correct the employer of William Dolphin to the Milwaukee Road.
MILW Traveler Pattern
Posted by: “Michael Sol” kimsol@bigsky.net michaelsol2000
Date: Sun Jul 7, 2013 11:13 am ((PDT))
— In MILW@yahoogroups.com, Michael Sol wrote:
Traveler, I am working from memory here, but it was a very complete, high end, collection. The story of its origin is that Milwaukee was looking for a new pattern in 1936/37 or so.
A complete set of Traveler would include:
1) Dolphin coffee cup
2) Dolphin coffee cup saucer
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“Meet the Dolphin Cup– Introduced around 1940, and in continuous production until the Amtrak era, The Dolphin cup is a specialized china design that was adopted by several railroads for dining car service. Designed by Chicago and Northwestern Dining Car Superintendent William Dolphin [This is an error, Dolphin was the Milwaukee Road dining car head], the patent record for Patent Number 2,189,136 indicates a filing date of January 9, 1939 and a final issuance date of February 6, 1940 (which provided patent protection until 1957). The patent record indicates that Dolphin was sole owner of the patent–he did not share it with his employers.
“The text of the patent appears to cover two separate aspects of the Dolphin Cup—the essential second inner rim which proved effective to reducing coffee spills on moving trains and passenger vessels. In addition, Dolphin included a second version of the cup in a unique shape. As he noted in the application: “a design thought by some to be more graceful and artistic (but) many other forms can be selected.”
“The unusual shape was a marketing gimmick that worked, and several railroad dining car departments wound up using the cup. Syracuse China was the only manufacturing company involved in producing them–their double lip was a little complicated to do on the jiggering lathes. Ultimately, they only offered to sell them to transportation companies. It’s interesting to note that Dolphin himself was an elder statesman in the fraternity of dining car department managers, and there may have been a sense of tribute and homage among the other managers who adopted the design. Ultimately, the Milwaukee Road, the C&O (including its Pere Marquette subsidiary), the Illinois Central, the Wabash, the Denver and Rio Grande, and the Great Northern wound up using them.”
http://underbrew.com/?page_id=44
Dolphin’s retirement from the Milwaukee is here:
http://milwaukeeroadarchives.com/MilwaukeeRoadMagazine/1944September.pdf
Best regards, Michael Sol
Comment by Jon Hochstetter — July 8, 2013 @ 10:02 am