The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-05-05
The Railroad Tell.tale...A Wonderful In.
yenti0n.

An ingenious machine, called the
"tell-tale," has been introduced re-
Gently on the Erie Railroad. 1t regis
ters the speed of trains, when and
where they stop and how long. 1t
is used especially for freight trains, and
is fastened at either end of small Ca
booses or at the side of large cabooses
about four and half feet from the floor.
1t was adopted because freight trains
frequently exceeded the prescribed rate
ofspeed. They would run very fast for
some distance and then take things COM
fortably for time.
Ihe machine works as follows: A
screw is wound around one of the Jour-
nails or axles of the caboose. A rod,
which IS turned by the screw as soon
as the train is in motion, runs horizon
tally to the end or side of the caboose
t0a point under the registering machine
10 this rod a cog-whee1 is attached,
working in another cog-wheel which
turns a rod running perpendicularly,
and ending in still another cog-wheel
which turns cylinder about four inches
long and one inch in diameter. The
number of cogs in each wheel varies, so
that when the train has travelled a mile
the cylinder has revolved only about
one-quarter of an inch.
A strip of paper about twenty-five
inches long and four inches in breadth
passes over the cylinder and hangs into
wooden box under the cylinder. This
paper is called the conductor service
report. Lengthwise it is divided by
dotted lines into lightweight parts
Each OF these parts, which represents
mile, is sub-divided by green lines
into four parts, each subdivision stand
ing for quarter of a mile. Breadth
wise the strip is divided into thirty parts
by green lines. Each of these parts
represent a minute. By means of clock
work 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 of a quarter inch for each mile, SO
that when mile is ,traversed the PEN
Gil has marked line over the space be-
tween the dotted lines which represent
mile on the strip of paper. AS the
elockwork moves the pencil across the
strip the pencil has also passed over as,
many minute divisions as it has taken
the car minutes to run 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 represented
by the number of spaces the pencil
moves across the strip before it resumes
the ienUthwiSe 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
Jersey City. Jersey City is printed at
the beginning of the strip and Bergen is
printed two and a half spaces furtheron
the length of the strip. When the train
stops the cylinder stops 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 train reaches its destination the
slip is removed and inspected.
York Sun,