The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-12
TO FOIL TRAIN ROBBERS.
Various Contrivances of Inventors to Meet
 Long-Felt Want.

! lHTDul UHG Gbs LOUIS OlODG-DtlllOOlub'
 Within the last few months scores of
 applications have poured in for patents
 on contrivances designed to defeat the
 enterprising railway bandit. Some of
 them are so ingenious and original as
 to be well worth describing. For ex- ample, one model has been offered of an
 express car which Is a sort of modified
 rat trap. It not only protects the valu-
 ables intrusted to it for transporta-
 ton and safekeeping, but actually cap
 lures any thieves who may attempt a
 depreciation.
 This ingenious device is the inven- | ton of Miguel Morell, of Santa Barba-
 ra, Cal. A part of the express car is
 fenced off and enclosed with strong
 bars of steel. In this cage the safe
 containing money and all other valua-
 bles is kept-not merely for the sake of
 safety, be it understood, but for bait. In order to see how this would operate, | it is only necessary to imagine the
 train held up by a gang of robbers. "Open!' cries the leader, of the band,
 "or we will blow up the car with dyna- mite"
 Certainly, with pleasure" replies the express messenger politely. walk right inI'
 So saving he throws wide the door, and the robbers at once avail them selves of the nvluation. In .ne e~se, which is lighted with electricity, if 1t be night. they see the safe, surrounded by ttractive-looking packages. h. tent upon securing the booty, they walk into the barred enclosure, while the messenger retreats into corner of the car. There he touches lever, which actuates a mechanism that causes the door of the cage to close with a snap, imprisoning the bandits. "Foiled! Ha! hap laughs the messeh- ger, protected from the guns or ms Vlc- tims by the metal shield behind when he has stepped to pull the lever froIn behind the shield he slips out of the car by a little door, and the thieves are left
 to gnash their teeth in impotent rage, while they are conveyed to prison by the train they have attempted to loot' Another pattern of robber-proof ex- press car has been newly patented py w n. Patterson, of Keokuk, Ia. Inside of it is built a box of sheet steel. Ine box is shaped like a huge spinning top, with a peg at each end. The pegs are pivots. one of them being fixed in the roof and the other in the floor Of the car. Thus the box can be made to re- volye. so that the messenger who seeks refuge within it can shoot in any di- rection through openings provided for the purpose, while from the security of his bomb-proof fortress he gazes through peep holes at the bandits, sup posing that they have forced an en- trance to the car. Owing to it's pecu- liar form, the box isl supposed to be par ticularly well adapted for resisting ex- plosives.
 But this is not all. If the robbers succeed in getting into the sheet-steel box. they do not find the messenger In some strange way the bird has dis appeared; the bomb-proof is empty. "Foiled again." chuckles the messen- ger quietly, as he hears the bandits take their departure, and thereupon emerges from a small compartment be- meath the floor of the box. In this com partment there is just room for him to lie curled up and concealed by an iron plate that fits the hole in the floor through which he crawled. The thieves are not likely to finger long, and there is only a bare possibility that they would set fire to the car and roast the agent to death.
 Francois Bernardin, of Antwerp, O., has obtained exclusive rights in a somewhat more simple contrivance, which has the same purpose in view. His idea is that the express safe shall itself be a fort in miniature. When the train is held up, and the petulant pop of the bandits gun is heard without, the messenger gets into the safe and locks it. Thus securely ensconced, he responds to the "open sesame" of the robbers by pulling from inside of the safe a rope, which throws wide the door of the car The thieves rush in only to find themselves confronted by wall of iron bars, which separates the main part of the car from the end section that contains the safe and other valua- bles. While they are hesitating as to what to do, the messenger enpties sev- eral rifles into them.
 Another inventor has devised most original sort of iron box, which is to serve as a fort to the express agent. It is perforated on all sides with holes and is literally lined with revolvers. Each of the weapons is permanently fixed in the wall of the cylindrical box by means of ball bearing. That is to | say, each pistol has metal ball sur rounding the end of its barrel and this ball is held in socket, SO that the re- volver may be turned and aimed in any | direction. Thus the messenger has a | whole battery at his command, and, | looking out through peep holes, he | pumps the bandits full of lead This | idea is the property of T. Keely, of | Memphis, Tenn.
 A conception of quite a different | character is that of G. T. Yost, of Ca seyvil1e, H. His contrivance is a large, | fiat steel box, to be attached beneath | the express car, the upper side of it