The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1882-10-12
New Railroad Inventions.

The railroad men nowadays arc dis.
! playing the most wonderful inventive
genius, and it gives us pleasure to notice
them, since it seems that each new inven.
ton adds additional safety and comfort
to railroad travel. The most notable de.
velopment of inventive talent displayed
is that Of Mr.. l.. B. White, late freight
engineer on the Richmond and Danyille
Railroad, but who recently resigned and
has been putting N his time at his inycn.
tions, of which there are two. Ono ia
what might he called the safety mile
post, and tho other is 81 smoke and dust
| arrester. While the former is a most
valuable invention and one destined TO
save many lives and much property, the
latter claims the favor Of railroad travel.
crs as All invention that will make travel
pleasant .ud comfortable bv arrestinp
all the smoke from the engine and dust
from the trucks and roll them out behind
the train. The first contrivancc spoken
of above consists OF an upright box TO be
placed at every mile post. Tho box il
fitted up with some sort of work TINT
throws up n coored ball every time a
train passes. The ball remains elevated
just ten minutes aud at the end of that
time it drops down again into the box.
where 1t remains rntil another train
comes along and raises it. The value of
tins invention may be seen ut o glance.
lhe railroads are beginning their busy
season, and besides the passenger trims
large number of ireighta, in sections of
few minutes Of each other are rumbling
over the rails. AS train passes one OF
these signals the ball is thrown up and
NF I,a Ill. .,I
ways know whether or not the train in
front OF HIN IS ten minutes ahead. If he
passes the signal and sees that the ball is
down, he knows that it has been ten min
utes or moro since the train ahead Of him
passed that place. If the ball is up he
SHOWS iiIut II has nut ucrn icn minutes
since the train passed, and shows up ac-
cordingly. The danger Of accidents by
one train over;aking and running into
another is not an infrequent one. but this
invention almost wholly does away with
such danger and insurcs comparative
safety to trains in this respect. The box
and its machinery are 80 arranged that a
train cannot pass without the balls being
thrown up. The Richmond and Dan
vile Railroad Company will have these
safety signals put up along their roads
alr. White has not yet completed his
smoke and dust arrestcr, but he has it 40
far worked out that those who have seen
it are confident that il will be success
and he has already sold part of il to n
prominent railroad man in Washington
City for sum, we are told, Of $4,000.
The contrivance catches the smoke as it
comes from the stack and carries it, to-
gether with the dust from the trucks,
along under the cars and emplics them
behind.
Mr.. Barnum, n railroad man in Allan
Ia, has invented some system in electric.
ity by which m engineer as he sits by his
throttle and watches the telegraph poles,
can tell when another train is approach.
ing him. The engineer Of each train,
even though they be several miles apart,
can tell of the approach Of one train to
the other, and all collisions can he avoid
cd. With the mo,tus opcramii Of this sys-
tenn we are fot acquainted and while it
sounds incredible to believe that by
watching the telegraph poles an engineer
can tell that n train is coming to meet
him, yet it is given to us as Il fact and
one that will soon be in actual operation,
If inventions keep on at the present rate,
it will soon be safer for man to ride on
the railroad than to stay at homo Char.
kOHc Observer.