The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-03-10
aTHE RLoCK sYSTEM. .

On roads which still rely on human in
telligence to set signals and adjust
switches, the first inquiry of the coro-
ner and the newspapers after an accident
is as to whether the switch or signal
or signal man did his duty. If he were
sick or exhausted or intoxicated when
the catastrophe came, the responsibility
is sure to rest on him or his employer.
When the human agent fails, disaster is
the result. That is where the electric
agent in the latest application of the
block system proper-on the line, that is
to say, not in the yard-has the advan-
tage over the human agent When it
fails, safety is the result.
There is certain subtle drollery about
this phase of the leng struggle for COM
blned speed and safety. 1.-THE trouble
is says Laudator (Temporis Acti is the
rest of his name), 'that all these delicate
contraptions are too fine for use They
won't work. They get out of order.
then where are you?' Laudator is gen
orally an old volunteer fireman, and APP
plies his wisdom to contrast between
steam and hand engines. Sometimes,
hanover, Laudator is found in railroads,
as he often is in military circles, and
sometimes, in very recent times on one
notable occasion, he gets into editorial
print.
But" answers Science, with shadow
of smile, 'if this delicate new contrap-
ton won't work we are at safety. When
it fails to work it hoists the danger sig
nal Do you see, Laudator ?"
Yes, LaudatOr does see every day of
his life as he ''cSmmutes" to his subur-
ban home in club-car and wishes for
the days of the stage-coach. He sees it
every time he passes block signal, and
there is block every 1860 feet between
between Jersey City and Point Rocks
but the rest of his name being Tempolis
Acti, he will not inquire into what he
sees, or acknowledge that what he sees
is the proof of what he has been told.
Moreover, if he knew that every rail
over which his club-car rolled was charg-
ed with electricity, and that it ran up
into the wheels and springs of his club
car almost to his feet, he would give up
his commuters ticket, write letter to
his favorite afternoon newspaper, and
90 afoot. Yet that is what happens to
Laudator every time he goes to his sub
urban home, and that is the guarantee
of his safety.
Perhaps Laudator has noticed this
much-some passengers do--that if the
red blade on the high post beside the
track sticks straight out the train stops;
| if it is inclined at an angle of sixty de-
grees, and the green fishtail beside it is
| horizontal, it goes ahead slowly; il both
blades are at the sixty degree angle it
goes ahead at full speed. Some passen-
gers have gone so far as to ascertain that
the horizontal position of the red blade
meant train on the next block, a heri-
zontal red blade and sixty degree green
fishtail meant train on the next block
but one, and both blades at sixty degrees
clear track. As to the means by which
these signals are raised and lowered when
there is NO signal tower with man in
side of it and the clangOr of an electric
bell, the honest inquirers confess COM
plete my LITIGATION. The careless ones
probably think that the signals respond
to the yanking of wire from the next
station, perhaps two miles away, and
! even the conductor or engineer could
not, perhaps enlighten their ignorance.
If we look at the end of the rail direct
ly opposite the signal post we will see
that it appears made of rubber-not of
steel. That is an insulator. If it were
not for it the twenty volts per second
with which each block is charged by its
peculiar wire might go wandering all
along the line as soon as train left it,
unlocking things at their sweet will.
When that block is clear of Laudator's
train, the twenty volts 60 prancing up
wire in the signal post to magnet, play
around an armature, unlock COM
pressed air chamber, and, presto! down
drops the red signsl to safety. The next
train may come on.
But the moment that the next train
passes on that block. Messieurs Twenty
Volts are Immediately diverted from
this course. The great mass of metal
passing over them has a stronger at
traction than anything in the signal post.
Presto againl The merry volts swarm
! bllO NntNlNt iOo iANO WV SeNA -
| Ii it is the Columbian Express that is
following Laudatsr's train, perhaps they
are trying to find out if the slandered
feet of the pretty Chicago girl in the next
car are as big as they are painted in the
comic prints.
At any rate the circuit is cut. The
electrical agent has quit work The sig
nal goes to the Acknowledgment! The
next train may not follow till the Colum-
blan Express is off the block, and the
next twenty volts are free to swarm up
the signal post and set the red blade at
sixty degrees-safety.
1t is not only by the passage Of train
that the electrical agent may be made to
quit work. Suppose by that very trains
passage ON frosty morning rail on the
block has been broken. Then Messieur
Twenty Volts will bury themselves in
t earth rather than climb to the chilly
altitude of the signal. Then again the
red blade rises to danger. There being
no train on the block an inquiry into the
meaning of the signal follows, and the
broken rail is discovered The same
would be the case where any other acoi-
dent, the cutting of wire, for instance,
broke the circuit.-Harper's Weekly.
|
Lutte Hitchcock, of Milton, went to
a stack of straw last Saturday night to
get some bedding for his stock, and, in