The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1896-09-02
9Haerspa gmtelltgeueer.
PASSING OF THE BRAKEMAN.
How a Certain Rr. Westinghouse Drove
Him Out With q Few Puffs Of Air.
Ne,U York Sun.

S23 employees of American railroads
were killed, and 23,422 were injured
in the performance of their duties.
During the preceding year 2,7OO were
killed and $4,000 injured, and this
marked decrease the commissioners
ascribed, in part, to the increased
use Of automatic appliances" and to
the greater efficiency of the railroad
employees. During the year included
in this report, 540,000,000 passengers
were carried on American railroads
and 69S,00O,OOO tons of freight. The
ratio of casualties to passengers was
remarkably and most creditably low,
one passenger being killed to each l.
66S,791 carried, or one to each A.
1G3, ,22S miles travelled. late years
railroad accidents in the United States
have been steadily on the decline, and
the most gratifying reductions have
been among the class of accidents due
to collisions.
Incident to this decrease, the rail-
road brakeman is disappearing, and
it may not be many years before this
interesting but more fire.
perplexing parsonage will,
like the mammoth and mastodon in
the animal kingdom, become an ex-
tinct species. Every one familiar
with the discomforts of railway travel
knows the brakeman as he hourished
in other days, a stalwart man, of un-
couth attire, little inclined to frater-
nize with the passengers, whose par
ticular specially, so to speak, was
calculating in an articulate and in
comprehensive manner the names of
the stations. It used to be consider
ed among brakeman an accomplish
ment to be able to call out the names
of all the stopping places on the road
in such a manner that none of the
could know definitely which
one was referred to, and a refinement
of this accomplishment was attained
when the brakeman added, C
minutes for refreshments"
The now disappearing brakeman
owes his extinction to a mechanical
contrivance. This is the automatic
air brake, an invention of Mr.. West
inghouse, since improved, which does
the work of the brakeman in safer
and much more expeditions manner
than the hand brakeman was able to
do it. There $4,000 locomotives in
use on the railroads of the United
States, $4,000 passenger cars, 5000
mail and baggage cars, and 100000
freight and coal cars. Of the last
named, $4,000 are already equipped
with automatic air brakes, and all the
passenger and mail cars with few
isolated exceptions, are go equipped
likewise. It seems to be only ques.
ton of a few years when the exten.
sion Of this system will be universal,
for, by an Act of Congress passed on
March 2, 1893, as a part of the legis.
lation of the interstate commerce
law, it was made mandatory upon all
railroads engaged i'll interstate com.
merce "to equip their cars with auto
matte and continuous brakes and
couplers, and their locomotives with
driving wbeel-brakes.''
The system under which the work.
ing of the brakes on the railroad cars
is regulated by the engineer on the
locomotive, is ingenious and simple.
Under it a long train going at a high
rate of speed may be stopped almost
instantly. The method of the opera
ton is as follows: Under each of the
cars is rubber pipe connected with
an air compressor on the engine. This
pipe leads to and supplies an air res.
ervoir under each car. These reser.
voirs are loaded from the engine with
compressed air to the amount Of 70
pounds each. The pressure of the
air keeps open the brakes, and as long
as the compressed air remains in the
reservoirs under the cars the brakes are
open. By turning the lever on.the en-.
gine the compressed air is released,
and as it is released the brakes on each
of the cars close automatically, press.
ing against the wheels and practically
locking them. This process is similar
in effect to the old-fashioned putting
on brakes" whereby a brakeman
would hurriedly and laboriously turn
the handle of each brake and thereby
put pressure upon the wheels. Ne
cessarily much time was lost in this,
and the power brought into operation
was hand power, the power of the
hands of the brakeman. To start the
train again it was necessary to unlock
each of the brakes, and this also took
time. Now the unlocking is done au,
tomatically, for as soon as the train is
brought to a full stop, of which the
painting of the compressed as it es,
capes from under the cars gives no.
notice, the reservoirs are again filed
by q turn of the lever on the engine,
and this fills the reservoirs under the
cars, and thereby automatically re-.
leases all the brakes at once.
As a result of this innovation, not
only has the brakeman of former
times been very nearly done away
with, but the interest Of safety in rail
way travel have been much promo
ted. "FIll-head" collisions are very
much more rare than formerly, be.
cause usually both trains can be stop
pad in time. Again, on curves,
bridges and grades, the brakes can be
made to move and work much quick.
er. Less time, too, is lost in short
stoppages than formerly, and the new
automatic brakes, therefore, add to
the quick moving of trains. Instead
of several brakemen for various cars,
pursuing their often dangerous bust
ness in hot and cold weather., there is
now really one brakeman on a train,
and be is the engineer, whose control
over the compress valve enable him to
regulate the speed of the cars and to