Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1894-12-22
TO STOP TRAIN ROBBERS.

TO STOP TRAIN ROBBERS.
Frank Ryan, convict in the Lou
isiana state prison at Baton Rouge
has patented an invention for the
prevention of train robberies, which,
he says, is bound to revolutionize
the express business.
He sends sketch of his patent to
the New York World and says: In
the COS a boy held up stage coach
on the Fiddletown road i'm CaIifor.
mia with a crooked rail. Such men
as Shorty Hayes, Clark Liverpool,
Dorsey Miner and many others tina,
l could mention were then in the
heighth of their glory, but when
Wells, Fargo & Co. put on "shot-
gun" messengers the bad men went
to new fields.
The express companies of today
can put ten guards in an express
car, but so long as the engineer and
fireman are unprotected trains will
be robbed. OF what Use are ten
men in an express car when one
man can put ten pounds of dyna.
mite with the fuse attached under
the car.
This correspondent points to the
fact that in the years 1901 and 1892
there were twenty-five trains robbed
OH the different roads throughout
the United States, and that in nine
teen of these the robbers boarded
the engines and compelled the en-
gincer and fireman to go with them
to the express car. He adds: Ithas
always been conceded that any
thing to prevent these robberies
would come from the brain of "a
convict.
The messenger Revolving Picket"
is the name of the convict's patent,
and 1t is an ingenious system 10
protect the engineer and fireman.
1t consists of a bullet proof house
on the back of the tender, in which
an armed guard takes his place as
the train pulls out from the depot.
This house ia made of either boiler
plate or steel and il does not ex-
coed 100 pounds in weight. 1t can
be detached from the tender when
not in use.
The little house is about four feet
in height, so as to allow "a man to sit
down in comfortable position and
yet not 30 high as to strike bridges
or the tops of tunnels. In the front
there is u door that is fastened on
the inside with a bolt after the
guard enters. There are port holes
in the door and sides, which the
guard can open at will, thus giving
him good view of the engine and
the country at large.
The picket house revolves like the
turret of a man-of-war and under
each corner there il a roller. To
fasten the picket house on the ten
der there is a socket and four rings,
aud on the inside there are four
chains which catch in the rings.
The whole is held in place by "a
pivot i'm the center.
When the train ia made up the
express guard mounts the engine,
examines the picket house and puts
his rifles, revolvers. etc, on the in
side. When the train pulls out he
enters and fastens the door, sits
down and lights a cigar and begins
to keep an eye out for train robbers.
When this train nears station or
water tank he covers the engineer,
and il would take man with more
than ordinary nerve TO attempt to
board an engine with a rifle barrel
or shotgun looking him in the face.
III Tic NNCht vi tuC tidih oSiuS CNt
in two the engineer could tell in
moment by the jumping of the re-
verse lever and by the motion. The
guard could hand to the engineer
and fireman each a rifle, and by
backing up the detached portion of
the train they could protect the ex-
press car.
Convict Ryan says of this patent:
II claim for my invention that il af-
fords complete protection to the en-
gineer and fireman, with no danger
to the guard unless it be that the
engine is thrown from the track.
With a determined man on the in
side of the picket il would be an alb
solute impossibility for an armed
body of men to stop, dynamite and
rob the express car