The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-01-06
GREAT HUGCERS, THESE.
They Embrace Car Wheels and Bring
Trains to Dead Stop.
From the Chicago Record


over the brow OF the grade. The train
crew gathered around the stove il the
/ caboose. smoked. chewed and growled be
I cause the limited was holding them so
long. All but the rear brakeman. lie had
7 Tilted his chair against the side Of the
car near the conductors home made deck.
and Was muttering 70 himself: When the
fulcrum C is between the force + and the
weight W il is a lever Of The drst kind.
When the weight W is between the force
+ 7 and the fulcrum g. it is a lever Of the
I second kind"
He broke or suddenly and exclaimed;
"Hans il all, what 40 ] want TO know Of
levers of the first kind and fulcrum {. and
all Of this toHlfool business
. The conductor looked thoughtfully over
the bowl OF his corncob pipe and said.
Because orders is orders, and since afr
brakes have been put on freight cars you
are supposed to know all about them. Here
is the order; Every employe whose duties
are connected in any way with the opera
ton Of the air brake will be examined from
time TO time as 10 his qualification for such
duties That's why. The inspector may
/ bring up levers. and ne may switch off 10
triple valves and ask You the difference
between the triple valve used on freight
cars and those on passenger cars
He'd get his answer quick enough, re-
torted the brakeman. The triple valve
on passenger car has the letter p cast
on the outside surface" And then he
bent his head over the instruction book
and poudered over several examples which
he found all worked out for him ia the
chapter on levers.
The railroads are rapidly complying with
the law which provides that all passengers
and freight cars shall he equipped with au-
tomato air-brakes. over 100000 freight
. cars now have the words 'air-brakes'
/ stencled on their sides, and every passen-
ser car is lifted with air-brakes as a
matter of course. Every railroad has its
Z instruction car, in which is a complete
system of air-brakes for freight ana pas
senger service, and this car is sent over
the road in charge Of an instructor, who
schools trainmeu and other employees In
the use OF the wonderful mechanism
which has made railroad travel safer
than a walk through the business center
. OF Chicago. In the course of the year
. every railroad employee VINO has anything
TO 90 with the running OF trains is exam
. ncd on the air-brake. and not only must
he be able to give technical and detailed
. description of the train system from the
air-pump on the engine 10 the conductors
cord in the rear passenger car, but he
must tell the inspector what should be
dcne in emergencies and break-downs
Just 1t present the trainmen in the freight
. service are receiving the special atten-
ton OF the air-brakc inspectors, and the
boys are coming instruction books. dis
secting triple valves and angle cocks and
examining up for the ordeal.
When George Westinghouse, Jr.. score
, Of years ago invented the automatic
air-brake he gave the railroads that which
enabled then to increase the speed of their
trains fourfoid and which reduced the
I dangers Incident TO railroad travel almost
10 tEe minimum. The first air-brake
/ used on railroads were known as the
straight air" and We're not automatic.
The straieht-ar system had the air COM
pressur the storage tank on the engine and
the train brake, but the brakes We're put
/ on by the direct pressure Of the air
through the train pipe from the reservoir
on the engine. The sytem was Wofully de-
fectve for the engineer had no means Of
knowing that all the brakes Were set
and the slightest leak in the connections
lowered the efficiency Of the brake. II was
q beginning. however, and led up 70 the
present sytem OF quck-scting automatic
brakes with which all the brakes IN
train OF 81 cars. 2.u00 feet long, can be sci
in less than three seconds by a simple
twist of the wrist in the engine cab. With
this system the engineer knows beyond
peredventure of doubt that when he
throws the handle OF the engineers valve
to a certain position every brake i'm The
entire train Is set. There is no perhaps or
chance about il, for any decrease of pres
sure in the main air pipe. which runs
from car to car, connected by rubber
hose, sets the brakes. It makes no differ
euce how the air gets out of the train
/ pipe the brake-shOes hug the wheels just
the same. The air may he released 10y the
engineer or by train breaking in two and
! parting the rubber connecting hose. or by
the conductor pulling the cord of the con-
ductor's valve or by leak. The brakes
I will respond at once to the slightest de-
crease Of pressure and the wheels win
complain under the merciless squeeze.
Often in reports of railroad accidents the
/ story ends with the cause of the accident
was the failure OF the brakes to act" The
/ probabilities are in ninety-nine out of
/ hundred accidents for which tickle air
brakes are held responsible that the true
cause was that the brakes were not al
lowed to act in time. They are there al
/ ways on duty, with at least ninety pounds
! Of air in the storage tank on the engine,
with seventy pounds in every auxiliary
storage tank under the cars, with the
train-pipe charged, everything ready to
work. but useless unless the engineer re-
leases the air in time.
When a locomotive hauling a train
comes to a stop at Il station il seems to
be painting after a long run. The sound
Of rapid breathing begins as soon al the
big drivers come to a rest, and gradually
7 the p3uLlnS SFDEo slower anu slower until
I it stops. The engine has filled its lungs
with air again and is ready for another
run, for the breathing was the noise of
/ the exhaust from the air pump, standing
upright just in front Of the cab. A strong,
/ compact neat-looking arrangement is this
/ air pump. 1t has two cylinders one steam
and the other air, and as the piston moves
up and down the air is compressed into
! the large air tank under the front end
/ of the boiler, Just back Of the cowcatcher
From this main storage reservoir a pine
| leads to the engineers valve in the cab
under and to one side Of the throttle
where the engineer can lay his hand on
! it at seconds notice. From this import
ant valve which controls the air pres
sure and by which the air brakes are set
/ and released, the air passes through an
other pipe TO the train pipe. This pipe
runs under each car and IS connected be
tween cars by rubber hose so that when
! the connections are made the pipe is con-
/ tinuous from one of the train to the other
Through the train pipe the air is ad-
nitted to the auxiliary air reservoirs I'M
der the cars, one to each car. The air