Evening star., 1894-02-17

sparks that followed its contact with the
earth. Yet the boy t-ihils with one of
the most effective danger signals used al
most universally by the railroads OF this
country. TIE signal had been thrown from
the rear end OF SUBURBAN train. and. II it
had been left in the proper place intended
for 1t. would have Kept the train fol!1wi- z
at least fifteen minutes in that trains rear.
The train following WAS express. and
running at high rate OF speed; the signal
was missing; the flagman OF the suburban
train believed he had fully protected his
train. and the express dashed on and into
the train ahead. with terrible results. Twelve
passengers were killed and over twenty
were badly injured as q result Of lads
thoughtlessness. Charley was only tweive
years old. and when arrested the day FOL
lowing the wreck. confessed that re had re-
moved the burning fuse, not knowing what
1t was.
The Best Rulc to Follow.
The boy can. no doubt. be forgiven on the
strength of his tender age. yet it is a ques-
ton whether thousands of people twice his
age ever saw a similar signal and would
not have acted similarly under like circum-
stances. The best rule to go by when in the
vicinity Of a railroad is to keep hands eff
Every little piece OF machinery or obscure
burning lamp is playing its little part to-
ward an effective whole. and the disar-
rangemeut of one may make the other
Ineffective. The employees know this and de-
pend upon the proper working of each and
every one to help them out in a speedy and
safe transaction of the railroad business
OF the dozen or more signals used in rail-
roading. the red flag By day and the red
lamp by nighr are the oldest and, no doubt.
the most useful of danger signals. The fuse
that Is thrown from the rear end of a train
In foggy weather. and when stop Is not
to be thought OF on account of the close
proximity of an oncoming train, is prac-
tically late invention. Many years back a
red fuse was used but 1t had to be utilized
by the fagman driving the spiked end into
the crosstie. Ii would burn ten minutes and
then go out The train following would see
the light and either slow down in speed or
stop until the light had burnt out. In that
way trains were kept ten minutes apart
The improved fuse contains series of COL
ored lights. The first, being red will burn
i've minutes; the second blue also burns
hve minutes, and the third, white. finishes
OUT the n1teen minutes. BY this means an
engineer following the train from which the
burning fuse has been thrown Knows al.
most to the minute how far he is in the
rear, and instead OF stopping. holds MS train
l.
hgiy- This fuse Is weighted as well as
spiked at one end. and upon being thrown
from syift-noving train. will imrue,:iate teiy
assume an upright position thereby bur;,ing
better and being seen farther.
The Torpedo Effective.
The torpedo is another effective danger
ssgnal. and also a Signal OF Information
In the case of a rear ilagman OF a passen-
ger train placing A torpedo. he Will general
~ use one. while the aagman of a freight
frequently makes use of two. IN the first in
stance the engineer following will slow
dow aircscst 10 a standstilI anl whistle for
I:s haS-nan 10 protect his train. while IL il
be case of two explosions, he will know
freight IS getting out Of his way en- to a
l-g. and SLOW up his train until that
particular siding mas been passed The..
Is n G-tiHsoyins ts= star>lng efectivene.
OF the torpedo. The GXp!osi1 IN will awai.,
the most Sleep engineer and instart
place him on suari- The old torpedo W
!. .-c.e BY placing three percussion caps u;,
tee points OF, 4 small cast iron frame an
fli1s IN cDh2ntr G4np-wdsr around Q,
outside. The --tjsi1c frame consisted ct
TN. and was about IS large in circuIlssr-
ence = the C-w silver dollar, but about
four tII,'e as thlC... These torpeIoeS show p I
defects under certain circumstances such
as heavy rains. the caps refusing TO work,
The torpedo now IN use depends upon con-
cuSstOa for its explosion. and instead of
caps and powder. dynamite is used. To the
base Of the tCTpe@oes a long strip OF stiff
fened lead is s0ldereI. and by this means
they are strongly tied to the rails and can