The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-08-01
INVENTOR OF THE coWcATcHER.
Farmer ard Ills PIow Suggests the Loco
motives Valuable Adjunct.

Farmer ara f-iS FLOW SussseSts TIC LoCo-
motives Valuable Adjunct.
IF you should ever 90 to Columbus,
O.. said railroad man, and should
happen to drop into the model Uttered
little office of the Novelty Iron works
there. you will see sharp eyed old
gentleman. who will more than likely
be porting over some works. on me
chanics, or sketching the design for a
pattern for some piece of ornamental
iron work The old gentleman is L.
B. Davies, native of Kennebec
county, Me-, who was the first loco
motive engineer in actual service on
the first railway built in Ohio and the
inventor Of the attachment to the 10
connective Familiarity known as the COW
catcher, which is in use on every pas
senger and freight engine in the world
today but for which, invaluable as it
is to railroad companies, he never re
ceived one penny.
When Davies was 10 years old he
was the engineer on Commodore Van
derbilt's famous old steamboat the
Cleopatra He ran there one season
and then drifted out west. The little
Miami railroad was then building be-
tween Xenia and Springfield, in Ohio.
He went TO work on the road as engi-
neer of a construction train, and when
the road was completed, three years
afterward, he ran the first passenger
train Some years later he entered the
service Of the Columbus and Xenia
railroad. 1t was while he was run
ming a locomotive on that road
that he conceived the idea of the cow
catcher. The locomotives of that day
had no cabs, and row of iron spikes,
four feet long and driven into the
bumper of the engine foot apart and
a foot above the track, was the loco
motive builders idea of the proper
thing for pilot or cowcatcher. And
it was a cOwcatcher, and no mistake
There was no headlights on the loco
motives in those days, and as the rail
roads were not fenced in, and as cattle
and live stock had free run of the
country, scarcely night passed but
some COW or horse or hog was impal
ed on these spikes much to the peril
of the train and its passengers
The dangerous character Of this
rude and cruel pilot was source of
constant thought to Davies, and he
studied daily how he might improve
that attachment, and not only remove
it as menace to life and property,
but make it a safety feature of the To-
connective. One day, while he was run
ming his engine, and thinking on the
subject of improving the pilot, he no
tlced farmer blowing in field near
the railroad, and the manner in which
the mold board of the pillow threw the
earth to a furrow on one side at once
gave him the idea that developed the
plan Of the modern locomotive cow
catcher. The action of the mold
board on the soil was just the
action that was necessary to make
pilot a useful attachment in
stead Of a dangerous one, but it was
one sided. 1t did not take Davies long,
however, to see that by putting to-
gether device that was virtually a
pillow with two mold boards he would
accomplish the desired result. He con
structed such device and attached it
to the locomotive Paterson" of the
Columbus and Xenia railroad, and on
ciiO WI hioI u II liC Iiiotuo Will IL It's
success was manifested. On the trip
he ran into drove of cattle that were
crossing the track The new pilot cut
its way through them as if it were
pillow turning the soil, and threw them
right and left clearing the track with
out any perceptible effect on the en-
CINE. All the locomotives on the road
were at once fitted with the cowcatch
er, and it was not long before the idea
spread to other roads, and from that
time no locomotive has ever been
built for passenger or freight service
without Davies cowcatcher. Davies
did not patent his device, and although
it has saved the railroads of this and
other countries millions of dollars and
hundreds of lives, he never received a
penny's benefit from it. New York
Mail and Express.