Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-09-12
Car Seals.

Hero Is q small disc of lead about 49,
large a q dime and as thick as four,
dimes. In the edge of the piece are
rough wire so made that it will not
slip easily through any CONSTRUCTED sur
face is attached to the lead, one end
being lnsertedi in the holes and clinched.
1t is a crude affair, s cheap that it is
sold in bulk to large consumers at tif-
teen cents a pound, and yet it has
saved the road the loss of thousands of
dollars worth of property from freight
cars. 1t is the seal attached to the q
door. OF course, no nj for a moment
imagines that one of those fimsy little
affairs serve as a paddock, for one could
twist it loose with a slight outlay of
strength. When the car is loaded and
the door closed, the wire of the seal is
passed through the staple of the car
door, the unattached end is pushed
through the vacant hole in the disc, and
the car sealer, with a powerful punch,
congresses the lead until the wire is
firmly fastened in the disc. The
punch not only does this, but it
leaves on the disc in plain characters a
number and the initials of the road in
bias relief. 70 pull out the wire would
be to distigure these characters and at
once announce that q burglary had
been committed or attempted. The
figures on the lead pieces are the seal
number of the station from which the
shipment was made, and a careful
record is kept of it. 1t would be next
to impossible to rob a car without
breaking this seal. As the car pro-
ceeds on it's journey the seal is in
spacted at a certain point on each
division of the road. Supposing a car
Of merchandise to be shipped from
New York to st. Louis. The seal is
scanned and a record made OF it on
each division. The Lake Shore takes it
at Buffalo, but not until the inspector
has found that the seal is all right. At
Erie the seal is again inspected. At
this point the Lake Shore and Bee
Line Jointly hire u force of men to in
spect these cars. If the Inspector finds
the seal broken he refuses to take the
Car from the Lake Shore and it is tai
lied out and taken down to the freight
house in order that the contents may
be o%verhauled and the loss determined.
Ii by reference to the record of The In
spector at Erie it is found that
the car seal was all right
there, it is pretty good evidence
that the seal was broken some
| where between Erie and Cleveland.
The conductor OF each crew is held
strictly responsible for the seals of the
cars of his train, and with the matter in
mind he maintains Il ~stricter watch than
he would otherwise do. There are GER
tain rules between roads us to these
seals. For instance, if q car bound
from New York to St. Louis is found
despoiled of some of its contents at the
end of it's journey the two end roads,
viz, the New York Central md Indian
apo]is " St. Louis, would under certain
circumstances divide the loss between
them. 1t is somewhat remarkable that
no material change has been made in
the above described seal since its intro
ductlon. There are numerous other
devices, but this is the II in use o
the New York Central, Lake Shore.
Bee Line and other roads. sit was"
said Traffic Manager Skinner OF the
Eee Line yesterday. ''the invention of a
Baltimore " Ohio official whose name, /
think was Meeks. l remember that he
came here some time between 1857 and
saw Mr.. Addison Hills, before whom
he laid his invention and who at once
saw the worth of it. 1t was adopted
about 1862. They have improved it
some, but it is the same in principle as
it was when first Observation-Disclosures
uanl Yovnid