The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-04-03
ghe aa1itha Daily eagle Thursday glorme arI 1890.
which seems ready for use is not to be re

which seems ready for use is not to be re-
moved from its place.
Purple is occasionally though rarely seen.
It's significance In these instances Is Caution,
but go ahead slowly" Like blue, it Is used
bat little IN comparison with the three colors
first named Especially since the attention
of the scientific worlds was drawn to the
singular fact of color blindness on the part Of
engineers and fremen has the use diminished.
The closeness Of caution TO danger IS well
illustrated by the fact that a train which car
ries two green lights at its rear Dy night VIII
change these to red lights when the weather
is foggy, rainy or snowy, and on some Of the
English railroads the rule has long been fol-
lowed Of replacing caution by danger lights
whenever there is a visible increase In the
periis Of steam locomotion.
A further use Of the danger signal is afford
ed by the rule adopted by every railroad cor
poration in the United States in case Of acci-
deats. Not only are the danger signals
red flag by day and a red lamp by night
displayed at either end of the train, but
brakeman is dispatched in both directions TO
signal approaching trains of the fact. This
rule involves more suffering than any other
feature Of railroading. A brakeman who is
compelled to tread his way in the middle of
the night in the midst Of driving storm and
there wait for a train-it may be minutes, il
may be hours-undergoes a physical hard
ship in which health and often life hang III
the balance 1t is computed that over 1000
train men have been crippled for life under
such circumstances or have died from ex-
haustion.
The mechanical and automatic signals are
the latest and best phases of this branch Of
railroad science. No matter how careful
men may be, they will at times commit err
rors. The best switchman will at times leave
the switch open, and the most faithful flag
man viii in some Iuckless moment flag Road
open; go ahead" when beyond the curve dis
aster and death lie in wait for the doomed
train One chief system followed is the
mechanical, in which one switch bar opens
or closes a switch and displays with the
same movement all the appropriate signals.
At the Grand Central depot, Now York,
where this system IS carried to perfection,
there is a single bar which in one movement
opens three switches and sets eighteen signals.
The other system, the automatic, obtains
It's motive force from the mere weight of the
locomotive, or from an electric battery
thrown into circuit by the impact of the
system now SO generally adopted in the
United States As the locomotive passes
certain point the white disk used by day or
the white light by night gives place to oneof
either green or red, indicating that the road
is now occupied ahead for the number Of
miles which constitute block At the same
time the danger or caution signals set by the
same train at the beginning of the preceding
block are replaced by a white disk or a white
light, according to the time of day.
OF late years there has been a noticeable
use Of white flags and white lamps upon both
extra and special trains This is due to the
vast increase in this branch of railroading.
Formerly they were classified with wild
cats" and used green but more generally red
signals. The art Of the signal man is now in
decline 1t would have been driven to the
wall by the march of merely mechanical i'm
provements in raiIroading, but its demise has
been accelerated by the wonderful growth of
electric science. FALES-CURTIS