Joshua Lionel Cowen (August 25, 1877 – September 8, 1965), born Joshua Lionel Cohen, was an American inventor and cofounder of Lionel Corporation, a manufacturer of model railroads and toy trains who gained prominence in the market before and after World War II.
Early life
Joshua Lionel was born in Queens, New York City on August 25, 1877 to Hyman Nathan Cohen and his wife Rebecca (née Kantrowitz) Cohen; he had eight siblings.[1] His parents were Jewish immigrants from Germany.
Cohen had built his first toy train at age seven, attaching a small steam engine to a wooden locomotive he had carved. The engine exploded, damaging his parents' kitchen.[citation needed] He studied at Columbia University and the City College of New York.
Business career
Cohen received his first patent in 1899, for a device that ignited a photographer's flash. The same year, he was awarded a defense contract from the United States Navy to produce mine fuses, earning $12,000.[2]
Lionel Corporation
Cohen and his associate Harry Grant founded Lionel Corporation in New York City in 1900.[3] Sources disagree on what inspired this action. According to The New York Times, he devised a battery-powered fan for his shop, then connected the fan's motor to a small model train.[4]The Record (Hackensack, New Jersey) states that Cowen designed his model train after seeing another, stationary, train in a shop window.[5] A Manhattan shopkeeper bought Cowen's first electric train in 1901 and used it as a storefront display. After customers indicated that they wanted to buy the display, the shopkeeper bought six more trains.[2]
After expanding the production of toy trains and building his business, in 1910 Cohen legally changed his surname to "Cowen", for reasons unknown.[1] There had been waves of Jewish immigrants from Germany and eastern Europe to the United States, and many others also adopted anglicized names. Cowen often gave his birthdate as 1880, but he was recorded three years earlier.
After World War I, Lionel had become one of the top three manufacturers in the United States of electrical trains. It competed with American Flyer and Louis Marx and Company. By the early 1950s, Lionel had expanded into other lines and become the world's largest toy manufacturer. But interest in model trains declined in the postwar period with the decline in passenger travel, rise of automobiles, and development of the space program. Despite efforts, the company continued to lose money.[2]
In 1905 he married Cecilia Liberman, known as "Mimia". They had two children together. After her death in 1946, he later married again, to Lillian (Appel) Herman in 1949.
