The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1881-05-28
THE RAILROAD TELLTALB,
a Machine that Records the Distance
Travelled. the speed and stops
of Trains.

An ingenious machine, called the tell
tale. has been introduced recently on
the Erie Railroad. II registers the speed
Of trains. when and where they stop, and
how long. l, Is used especially for freight
trains. and Is fastened at either end Of
small eabooses or at the side Of large
eabOoses, about four aud ahalf feet from
the floor. Il was adopted because freight
trains frequently exceeded the prescribed
rate Of speed They would run fas, for
some distance. and then take things com
forsably foE time.
The machine works Is follows \
screw Is wound around one Of ,he journals
or axles Of the caboose. A rod, which is
,urned BY the screw as soon as the train
is ia motion, runs horizontally to the end
or side Of The eaboose to 4 point under the
registering machine. To this rod cog
wheel Is attached, working in another
eogwheel which turns a rod running per-
peadieularly, and ending in still another
eoxwhccl which sarns q cylinder about
four inches long aud one inch in diane
ter. The number Of eogs in each wheel
varies. so that when the train has travel
ed a mile iAe cylinder has Teyolyed ouly
about one.auarter Of an iach
A strip Of paper about twenty one inches
long aud four inches in breadth passes
over The cylinder aad hangs into 4 wooden
box under the cylinder This paper Is
called the conductors service report.
Leasthwise i, is divided BY dotted lines
into eigh,y.eighl parts. Each Of these
parts, which represents a mile, is subdiyid-
ed by green lines into four parts, each
Subdivision standing for a quarter Of 4
mile. Breadthwisa the strip is divided
into thirty parts BY green lines. Each Of
these parts represents minute. By
means Of elOek-work a pencil moves across
the paper and back again, taking thirty
minutes to move across and thirty min
uies 10 move back again. As soou as the
journal or axle turns, the cylinder turn
at the rate Of a quarter inch for each
mile, so that when a mile is traversed the
pencil has marked 4 line oypr the space
between the dotted lines which represent
= mile os a strip Of paper. As the clock
work moves the pencil across the strip
the pencil has also passed over as many
minute divisions as il has taken the ear
minutes to run mile Ii the train stops
the cylinder stops The line made by
the pencil in the direction of the length
of the paper is broken as long as the train
stops, and the time Of the interruption in
travel is represented by the number OF
spaces the pencil moves across the strip
before it resumes the leugthwise line,
In order to ascertain the point where
any irregularity occurred, the stations on
the road are on or between the dotted
lines at points corresponding to their dis
tances from jersey City. Bergen is two
miles aud ahalf from Jersey City. Jer,
sey City is printed at the beginning OF
the strip, and Bergen is printed two and
shalf spaces further on the length of the
strip. When the traia stops the cylinder
stops, and the pencil line lengthWise is
broken between the printed name jersey
City and Bergen. The cylinder and
elockwork are inelOsed in an iron box
which is locked. When a train reache;
its destination the slip is removed and IN
speeted