St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1888-11-03

" PARISH, La, SAT
rAYLoR:s rooroaseTEa
4 Nsvea Invsatsea WIN Dsgasesso -
Whistles e Lsssaeelvos
Frank B. Taylor. ol Bridgeport
Conn. the inventor Of the 5000
phone." for transmitting messages o.
holding conversations Wkh engineers
while under full speed Cd &heir locomo-
dives, has just patented 1 device which
he calls tootometer. i reality, Il Il
. species Of phonogrsph Mr.. Taylor
was led 70 believe that tpme mechan-
ical device could be emple1ed 70 settle
the oft-disputed question s regard to
whistling At grade crospssL There
are large number Of gr1le crossings
In this State upon which annually
many lives are lost. The relatives Of
those killed almost invariably cla1m
that the locomotive wlistle was not
sounded in time to wart the victims.
The railroad companii 70 protect
themselves against daniages. dispute
the point 90 often taken; Mr.. Taylor
now comes to the front With tell-tale
whistling register. whlsh takes the
sound from the whistle every time Il Il
blown and records il
In order to explain - workings.
the run Of any engine On the Now
York & New Haven roaA may be used
for illustration. Say e1kins No l2o
draws the seven o'clock Aorning train
from New Haven to Nee York. The
engine is backed up in front Of the do
pot and attached to tho train. The
engineer. George CorbGtA steps into
the dispatchers's oface - get the time
or set his watch exa6sly with the
standard time. Tho di(p paacher hands
the engineer ''tootometer." which Il
already set for Engineer Corbett's run.
1t is numbered to correspond with the
engines number and 10 dated and Of
ficially locked. 90 that Y is impossible
for any one to alter it register OF the
whistle soundings. The ''tootometer"
is placed in q pocket bracket on the
front Of the cab. just beneath the
whistle. Inside the ''tootometer" is .
long roll Of tin foil. upon which are
stamped cross-lines representing every
grade crossing on the road. The roll
is unwound from one axle to another
by means Of . small clock attachment,
% that each line representing . cross
ing will be brought to the ''sounder
opening" precisely at the same mo-
ment that the locomotive speeds over
the grade-crossing. At tho proper
distance before reaching the grade
crossing the engineer blows the stan
dard signal. two long and two short
blasts. - or T-o-oot,
t-0-0t, too. too.
The sounds are registered by the
''tootometer." Should the engineer
fail to sound his whistle the ''to0to-
meter" would show an empty blank.
And % tho run il made to New York,
the ''tootometer." rolling OF its strip
Of tinfoil in time and unison with the
movement Of the engine. All trains
are run on exact time on this road, 20
there Is very little chance Of the
''tootometer" disagreeing with the
time grade crossing are reached. II
extra whistling is done to drive cows
OF the track or blown for other pur-
poses than grade crossings the sounds
are all registered and an exact record
taken Of all the Whistles blasts. and
the exact location Of the engine on
the rails at the time Of the blasts Is de-
noted from one end Of the road to the
other. At the conclusion Of the trip
the ''tootometer" Is handed by the
engineer TO the proper Official, who
removes the roll Of sounds and pre-
pares and adjusts the ''tootometer"
for the return trip. The strips Of tin
foil are carefully indexed and pre-
served for future reference. and the
engineer credited or charged with
omissions of whistle.
In the event Of . person being killed
on . grade crossing the tootometer
will truthfully indicate the whistle
blasts and denote the distance at which
they we're blown before the crossing
was reached. Tho tinfoil strips can b
produced at IN inquest or in . court Of
justice in evidence, and dissipate the
necessity Of IN enormous amount Of
swearing a. TO the fact Of the whistle
having sounded o. not BY running
the strips through . photograph, tho
exact volume Of sound and the key Of
the whistle can be reproduced. This
can be done At any future convenient
tine. Mr.. Taylor, the inventor. has
assurances that his invention win 90
into very general use.-N r World
a Chinese Motion.
A Chinaman dislikes 70 cay that
his friend il dead. but will tell you
that: His name has been added to