When news of the discovery of gold in California traveled back east, the brawn and brains of a young nation came westward, at a moment in American history when notions of Freedom waltzed hand-in-glove w/ unfettered commercialism -- and the rise of the Golden State began. Access to market were surveyed, and roads, bridges and tracks built wherever gold was found, with waystations established for respite and recreation.

 

The mining methods these men brought w/ them quickly evolved to meet the challenges posed by the Comstock Lode and its tributaries. The Industrial Revolution created leaps and bounds in scientific precisioning, allowing innovated models to be tested and profitably manufactured. Among these ideas of achieving precision was the ingenious “square set” created by one Philipp Deidesheimer, a German engineer, and which led to many adaptations for other uses. Grey Brechin picks up the umbilical cord: 

 

“ … Among the most useful inventions developed on the Comstock was a revolutionary wooden framing system devised by a German engineer to cope with ore bodies of unprecedented size. Philipp Deidesheimer's system of heavy timber “cubes” enabled skilled miners to open three-dimensional cavities of any size underground.“

 

The square set spread rapidly and a new method of constructing buildings was developed, using a grid of steel beams and columns which allow for strength enough to support more height. Deidesheimer's gift to engineers went from constructing underground safety zones to conduct the backbreaking business of mining into helping mankind climb halfway to the stars.

 

The term “skyscraper” came into usage in the 1880s, when enough tall buildings were built in the United States, some 15 or so, to warrant a designation. These new kinds of buildings usually came w/ modern plumbing, electrical outlets in every room, a telephone line in every unit, central heating, and elevator(s). Less than a hundred years later, they were poetically re-christened “cloud kissers” by Colin MacInnes in his novel, Absolute Beginners (1959). Gray Brechin describes its birthing:

 

“ … The necessary components for the skyscraper emerged from the mines years before the Hallidie Building … . Mining and mechanical journals, and the annual exhibitions of the Mechanics Institute, publicized those innovations. … Ventilators, high-speed safety elevators, the early use of electric lighting and telephones, all were demanded and paid for by the prodigious output and prospects of the hydraulic mines of California and the hardrock mines of the Comstock Lode. Moreover, the open framework of the Deidesheimer square set suggested to more than one observer an unprecedented kind of structure. ‘Imagine [the mine] hoisted out of the ground and left standing upon the surface,’ wrote reporter Dan De Quille.”