Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1871-1872, 1872-02-19
OSCILLATION AND TELEsCoPNe.
Raiiroad Accidents and their Ere
vsntien.

o all. The extension Of . substantial rail es
Dad sys,sm is Inducing the rsrious man
'gSmsnss 20 study the vsDm Of the travel
ns public, and to guard in every possible
manner the safety Of their patrons.
tia no, only that We must have rapid NJ
and frequent communication, but the most er
earnes. attention must be paid TO the safety :. =.
and comfort of travellers. Railroad acct. il
dents must no, only be prevented, but their D
occurrence must be rendered an impossible. n
i.y. The people must have implicit conf Il
denos in the executive management of the :,
company on whose road they travel. We Ii
do not mean TO say that any railroad com :
psny, even BY following every advice given, :
can prevent ereTy accident in connection
with working their roads which may hap q
pen, but we fally believe that, as far as pas
sengsrs are concerned, the daily journeys !
which they are obliged to make can be per-
formed without the most remote thought OF
even possibility Of accident TO them. Ii
mus, DO realized that svssy appliance which
modern Ingenuity has devised for the pre-
vsnlion Of accidents 10 in use. II is welf
established fact, though not generally
knovr, tia, the great majority Of frishdOl
Aocidenis which happen are directly iraeea-
bic to what is called ia railroad phrase
oscillation. To explain what Oscillation
is, and how il aud ",elesOoping, another
frigAtful source OF secidenm-mAy be pre-
vented, viii be the purpose Of this article;
hoping that q, some future time We may be
permitted 10 take up another branch OF the
subject First, then, oscillation, what IL hT
Technically good authority explains IL, as
"ths lateral vibration Of the cars Of n train
10 mo,ioD," or ia palmer words the rock
ing Of the cars from side to side while 10
motion. Each car vibratss independently,
giving kind Of ssrpeuiine course TO the
train. The locomotive being differently
oonstruotsd from the cars, not built upon
swing bolstered trucks, is not Affected with
oscillation, except where irregularities in
the track, curves or switches may cause 1t.
This lateral N Otion begins at the first car
ola train and increases in intensity to the
last, where ct high rate OF speed il is a.
ways dangerous. The cause Of oscillation
ere various, but are usually trsceable to
one or other Of the following causes, viz;
curves in the track, elevation Of outer rails,
use Of trucks under the cars, swing holsters,
play on the rails, and in greater and
more dangerous dgree TO lateral and vsrti-
cal crooks in the rails, high winds, great
length Of train, down grades, high rate Of
speed, and last, though not least,by SLACK
~ the coUpliags The eifsc, Of oscillation
10 trains q, high speed, is the great
doSidsratlon Of railroad travel, nowadays,
aud on down grades where the slack in The
couplings 10 greatest, the oscillation Of the
cars is severely feli, and dangerously so 10
the rear cars. To such cases, even on q
perfectly smooth aud sound track, the oscil-
lAtion becomes so rapid and violent, that
the swing holsters hump heavily against
the truck frames, and the fangss Of the
wheels imp iuge the rails with such force as
10 cause . spreading Of the rails on unsound
ties, or IL the ties and rails are sound
and strong aud ell 10 good order, oscillation
will force the wheels upon aud 0vsr the rails,
producing that kind Of accident that, in very
many instances, has resulted fatally to q
large number Of passengers, and in one 10
stance caused q loss 10 . railroad company,
in q few minutes, Of . sum greater than the
entire value Of their passenger equipment
This Is the kind Of accident that shows no
broken rails, wheels or trucks, and that
ooronsrs' aud other juriss, after many days
investigation, are unable to socouni for, and
ere compelled to End an excuse for.
In what way, then, can oscillation be pre-
vented 10 England and elsewhere Q screw
coupler il employed TO oind the several oars
Of a train together, thus making the train az
firm a. = continuous bolt, and TO greN. eI-
tent preventing oscillation. In shis country
till recently, loose link chain has been
uSed for this purpose; and travellers can re-
collect even on our old railroads, that the
sfso, Of this coupling was succession Of
violent shocks Gt every starting and stopping
Of . irwin. Within the past few years there
has been brough. into use q new ar
rangsmsnt eminen,ly calculated TO
obviAte all danger arising from
insecure coupling, which latter is
now conceded to be not only one Of the
principal causes Of oscillation but also Of
seven-sighths Of railroad accidents. The
new arrangement is in use on all Of the
roAds leading out Of Chicago and many
may have noticed il on the Chicago Rock
Island 4 Pacific RoAd-bsing first intro
duoad 10 that road By Supt, Riddle. Sc
valuable . safeguard has II been found that
over one hundred leading railroads 10 the
United States have adopeed it. The iuven
ton or inventions TO which We refer are
those OF the Miller Platform, Compression
Buffers and Automatic Couplers. What
the Miller "platform iS, all travellers
are familiar with, and though per
hsps their attention has not in so gresl
degree been called to the oouplsrs Gnd
buffers, nevertheless every one is sensible
Of the perfect freedom from jOils or far, and
from oscillation which ia experienced on this
road through their use. To the platform IL
at,ribu,abls the security from whS, il
termed "isleseoping." In the event Of Z
collision there can DO no jumping Of one
oar upon another, no "tslsscoping" Of one
car into another and the coupling so tighty
braces the platforms together that theJ
form . continuous car-aoor foundstiOE
or sill, from one end Of the train to tbs
other. In a word such safety and com
for are attained that not only have pru
dent travellers learned to scrutinize closel,