Excerpt from The History of a Trade-Mark

Many have wondered whether the peculiar design used a trade-mark by the Northern Pacific Railway Company was adopted by them in a haphazard manner, or whether a real significance attaches to it, whether it is simply an ingenious geometric device, or whether in its origin, meaning, and adoption there is hidden a story.

It is not a creature of accident - in the sense referred to - and there is a tale and history back of it.

It is not hard to relate its origin, it is easy to tell the story of its adoption, but when it comes to conveying to the general reader a clear idea of its original and ancient meaning, a somewhat difficult task confronts the relator, for reasons which will appear. The original symbol, of which the trade-mark is an adaptation, is Chinese in invention. The diagram itself was evolved in the eleventh century A.D., but the ideas which it represents date back to more than 3, 000 years before the Christ child was cradled in the manger at Bethlehem. It is really, therefore, more than 5, 200 years old, and may, indeed, be much older. It is known as the Great Chinese Monad, or more commonly, perhaps, as the Diagram of the Great Extreme.

Its Adoption.

The design was discovered and adapted to its present use in 1893.

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