The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1881-05-05
THE RAILROAD TEILrALE.

AUachine That Records the Distance
Travelled, the Speed and stops Of
Trains.
An ingenious machine, called the
"telltale," is in use on the Erie rail-
road. It registers the speed of trains,
when and where they stop, and how
long. It is used especially for freight
trains, and is fastened at either end Of
small cabooses, or at the side of large
cabooses, about four and o half feet
from the floor. It was adopted because
freight trains frequently. exceeded the
prescribed rate of speed. They would
run very fast for some distance, and
then take things comfortably for a time.
The machine works as follows Ascrew
is wound around one of the journals or
axles of the caboose. A rod, which is
turned by the screw as soon as the train
is in motion, runs horizontally to the
end or side OF the caboose to point under
the registering machine. To this rod q
cogwheel is attached, working in another
cogwheel, which turns a rod running
perpendicularly, and ending in still an
other cogwheel which turns a cylinder
about four inches long and. n inch in
diameter. The number of cogs in each
wheel varies, so that, when the train has
travelled a mile, the cylinder has re-
volved only about one-quarter of all
inch.
A strip of paper about twenty-five
inches long and four inches in breadth
passes over the cylinder. This paper is
called the conductors service report.
Lengthwise it is divided by dotted lines
into lightweight parts. Each of these
parts, which represents q mile, is sub.
divided by green lines into four parts, ,
each subdivision standing for a quarter
of q mile. Breadthwise the strip is di-
vided into thirty parts by green lines.
Each of these parts represents a minute.
By means of clockwork a pencil moves
across the paper and back again, taking
thirty minutes to move across and thirty
minutes to move back again. As soon as
the journal or axle turns, the cylinder
turns at the rate'o of q quarter inch for
each mile, so that when a mile is tray
ersed the pencil has marked a line over
the space between the dotted lines which
represent a mile on the strip of paper.
As the clockwork moves the pencil across
the strip, the pencil has also passed
over as many minute divisions o. 1t has
taken the car minutes to run a mile, If
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 repr esented
by the number of spaces the pencil
moves across the strip before it resumes
the lengthwise line.
In order to ascertain the point where
any ~irregularity occurred, the stations
on the road are printed on or between
the dotted lines at points corresponding
to their distances from Jersey City.
Bergen is two miles and a half from Jer-
sey1 City. Jersey. City is printed at the
beginning of the strip, and Bergen Is
printed two and a half spaces further on
the length of the strip. When the train
stops the cylinder stop, and the pencil
line lengthwise is broken between the
printed names Jersey City and Bergen.
The cylinder and clockwork are in
closed in an iron box, which is locked.
When a train reaches its destination the
slip is removed and inspected.-NeW
York Sun.