The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-07
IN SIGNAL WERS.
TELEaRAPHERS HOLD THE SAFETY
MANYIN TBEIR HANDS.

Railroad the Travelling Public are
Interested In-Many Lives Depend
ing Upon the Faithful Performance
of puty-How Accidents Have and
May Occur.
From the Washington Star.
II is safe TO say that one Of the hardest
problems that the large railroad corpora
lions will have to solve within the next six
months will lie the safe ard speedy hand
ling of the immense thron9 that will visit
the worlds fair In Chicago next year.
Block signals and interlockiDg switches
with the addition Of automatic electric sig
mails, are being adopted b. all the big trunk
lines and almost" everything done to In
sure safety with great speed. These great
appliances will supply about 65 per cent. OF
safety, the almost" If adopted. OF which
this article deals, about 80 per cent, which
will make 80 per cent. of safety in travel, a
truly remarkable showing. at the present
time the ratio is about IS per cent
The "almost" represents the working
hours of the railway teleRraphers. No
matter what safeguards are adopted, II the
one in charge OF the same proves negligent
they will 60 for naught. This assertion is
substantiated by the recent terrible wrecks
GRAFTON appliances that would make i'm
possible head-on or rear-end collision.
LONG HOURS OF LABOR
What does the government employee, who
works from six TO eight hours a day, think
of a man working twelve hours, and those
hours from Z p. m. till a. m. These are
the hours Of all the railway telegraph oper-
ators outside the principal stations In ad =
dition it should be remembered that he Is
not directly under command of an overseer
90 see that his work is correctly and
promptly done OF companions to keep him
company. On the contrary his signal
tower will be found located in the most
lonely localities, and even when situated at
or near a country town or village little life
or company can be expected from it after s
o'clock.
An Euening Star reporter had an iu-
Structive talk one evening recently with an
old-time railway telegrapher, who told him
of the many ways i'll which an operator can
neglect his duty and imperil the lives Of
hundreds OF people. This old timer is O
staunch advocate of the S-hour system. He
said:
''If the railroads will adopt an S-hour
system with its telegraphers over their en-
tire system Pill guarantee an astonishing re-
duction in the percentage Of accidents.
have worked in watch box and tower for
many years and know whereof speak. or
the hundred and enc ways in which a tele-
grapher can be weaned away from the
rightful performance of his duty allow me
TO enumerate few that l now recall as
coming under. my personal observation.
" In the first place an operator at an out
of-the-way station will be between Is and 20
years OF age. This happens nine times out
Of ten. At this age he is full Of animal life
and spirits and cannot fully comprehend
the responsibilities he has undertaken. Say
the period of the year is summer and the
weather terribly hot and close. The young
man is relieved from duty at Z o'clock Ia
the morning. Breakfast and an exercise
walk will be over by 10. He then retires TO
small, lily ventilated room, made so az to
exclude all outside noise and tries to sleep.
A sound sleep for perhaps an hour follows
and then tossing about the bed commences.
After another hour of this restlessness be
thinks he has been in bed for several hours
but upon looking at his watch he ascertains
the true situation. More tossing about fol-
lows and then in disgust he arises and 6ons
his clothes and lounges around the re-
matnder of the day. have gone through
this for weeks and have tried to put in
twelve hours reliable work at night, but
found 1t impossible.
SLEPT FOUR HOURS.
II remember passing one day much like
the above and at night falling asleep about
1880 o'clock and sleeping for nearly four
hours. During this time seven heavily
laden freight trains passed south and five
north right under my window. but never q
sound disturbed my slumber. Only those
that have experienced similar lapses of
consciousness can appreciate the almost
death grip such sleep holds one in. When
awoke the elegant sounder was tapping
off my Office call and without looking up at
the clock | answered, H. "I' ..,
If, nh tear fr0vn kfh
main Office. These were the trains that
passed my Office at about l O'Clock q. m
1t was then nearly O'clock. l answered
back, Not yet meaning they had not yet
passed.
without a word the operator at the
main office called up station about thirty
miles north OF me and told him to report
No. SO. Instantly came back the reply {:
First No. SO at $40; second SO at $780,
ITO say that l was dumfounded but
family expresses 1t. glanced up at the
clock and could hardly believe my eyes;
it was nearly O'Clock and daylight was
breaking.
'ECohcluding that my usefulness with that
road was gone forever drew up rough
draft OF resignation, explaining nay negli-
geuce as favorably as possible, and awaited
the request for it from the superintendent.
This request was never made. The operator
at the main Office was old timer, had
WORKED out on the ROAD, knew tue ellis
culties that surrounded the position and
had not reported me-
Making the working hours from until
4, from till i2 and II till Will reduce the
chances to q minimum. The responsibility
of the position will keep the operator awake
one-balt of the eight hours and his work
the other half."'
but the eight hour system calls for an
additional man." suggested the reporter.
THE EIaHT-HoUR SYSTEM.
That Ia it exactly and where the shoe
pinohes. tis the additional expense that
clogs the general adoption Of the system,
but it is false economy to ignore it Our
English cousins are more shrewd than we
in this particular. The telegraph system OF
all the railroads OF Eugland are under the
eight-hour system. The English are rather
slow to adopt innovations, bat quickly see
good parts OF an idea, ana where, lie is al
stake take no chances. The fact that oper-
ators in England receive only So week has
no bearing on the case, as very few OF them
are sound operators, the old system OF read
Ing from a paper tape being in general use
This system was in use here many years ago,
but found too slow for American progress
and enterprise.