The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-10
TO PREVENT COLLISIONS
DIRECT TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICA-
TION WITH RAILROAD TRAINS.
The Invention of c. ID. and w. A.
ROyse Exhibited Yesterday to Rail-
road Men, Who Say 1t Is Successful.


system of teIegraphing to and from NOV
ing trains, which, if it prove to be all that
is claimed for it. will result in revolution
izing the present manner of moving trains
by telegraph. The system embodies very
simple principles and as shown yesterday
model track able to send a mes
sage from any station to any train on the
road easily as message can be sent
from this city to Cincinnati.
A track had been prepared which is cleo
trically equal to line about two hundred
miles long. 1t is actually only twenty feet
in length, but as electrical distance is gov
erened solely by the resistance offered by
the conductor to the PASSAGE of a current
it is easy to put in sufti 1ient resistance
to make a Cwenty-foot track the equal in
this respect to line two hundred or TWEEN
ty thousand miles in length. Two small
cars were on the track and instruments
were placed at each end to represent term
inal stations, and a set of instruments near
the middle to represent way station. AT
the way station is side track. In work
ing the instruments it was shown that both
trains could be moving the main track
or on the side track or one on each and all
the time be in communication with each
other and with every office on the road.
little in the apparatus that was unusual or
that was different from any other system
of telegraphy, but to those who have had
experience and who saw it there seemed to
be something vastly different, or at least
they showed much surprise at the result
and spoke highly of it's possibilities. Chief
Train Dispatcher Dickson, of the Belt road,
was there and examined the workings of
the apparatus carefully. Everything was
explained to him and he tried the line in
various situations. In speaking of it he
afterward said:
This whole thing is so new that it is
very hard to say what its possibilities are,
but l can see nothing in the way of its
success in doing all that is claimed for it.
In the model it is perfect and electrically
there is no good reason why it should not
work just well a railroad. Its posi-
blllt1eS, II successful as it seems to be in
the model are almost beyond estimate.
None but train dispatcher can know the
advantage 1t would be to be able at any
minute to get direct communication with
every train on the road. Any railroad man
will readily see this advantage. It's SIM
pl1city and cheapnesS of construction is also
a great recommendation for it. Any tele-
graph operator could fully understand and
operate it,.
A number of other railroad men saw the
model at work and tried it, among them j.
S. Converse, train dispatcher of the Pan
handle, and j. II. McAlpin, chief train dis
patcher of the same road They were high
ly pleased with the workings of the APP
paratus and said they could see no reason
why it should not work successfully on
road and be great thing for railroads.
Other railroad men will see it to-day. The
apparatus will be on exhibition from 8 to u
a. M. and from to 5 p. m. 1t is not open
to the general public. but all interested in
railroads and telegraphy will be welcomed
THE operation of the system" said the
Messrs. Royse, sometimes one talking and
sometimes the other. lis very simple, in
fact, it is simple that the wonder is that
It has never before been put in operation.
There have been many attempts to do what
we now do, but so far as we know all eff
forts to solve the problem have been I'M
successful, except as to demonstrating that
such things can be done in several ways,
all of which, however, have heretofore
proved too cumbersome or too expensive
and uncertain. We have discarded all the
plans that have been tried and have di-
rected our efforts towards a simple adapta-
ton of the common Morse system of teleg
raphy and from what various railroad men
have said of our plan we believe we have
solved the question in way that is so sim
pie that anyone can manage it and at the
same time so inexpensive as to be practical
in its use.
Heretofore the effort has been more gen.
orally in the line of sustaining communica-
ton with moving trains by means of in
duction in which plans there are not direct
connections between the trains and the
main line, but the current in the main line
is made to cause an induced current in the
train wires on account of their close proX-
unity. Mr.. Edison holds patents on one
system of this kind which is successful so
far as operation in favorable weather is
concerned but it is so easily affected by
atmospheric changes that it is not expected
by him that it will ever come into general
use. 1t is very complicated, too, and for
that reason requires an expert to man
age it.
"Our plan is extremely simple and when
explained it always surprises old operators
to think that it has been so long in com
ing out. We use what might be termed a
"''~d ~"N plHced in the middle Of the track
This rail- of course, may be simply a soft
Ii = Strin2eF.
train is equipped with relay of very high
resistance not less than 1900 ohms, and an
ordinary telegraphic key and sounder. with
a local battery to operate the sounder. The
relay has one side connected to the main
line, third rail, and the other TO the
track rails, which form the return circuit.
The key is connected in the same manner
so that when the key Is closed the relay
is short circuited. There is a battery at
each end OF the line In both batteries like
metals are connected to the railroad track
and other metals to che main line. With
this connection the train relay will stand
closed when all keys are open. but when
any key is closed all train relays are short
circuited and open. 1t is simple enough to
change the contact points on the local side
of the relay so the scunder will close when
the relay opens. and there you have the
whole thing. Stations may be connected in
this way or the relays may be put in the
main circuit as is now done in the ordinary
system, but all keys must he connected the
same as train keys.
How long have you been working IN
this?"
ut is an old idea % mine" said g. D.
Royse. that there should be some means
of making a connection b. which trains
could be placed in topographic cCmmInica-
ton with the train dispatcher without the
use of any very complicated apparatus.
studied n matter years aSo when l was
working as an operator but there was one
gap | could not get over. Last spring |
again took up the matter and asked my
brother to assist me. Together we have
worked since then beginning with theory
that was quite complicated and which
would have resulted, If cirried to compile
ton as We began it, in a system that would
work, but would be SuDiCct ~ gSea- dui-
culties in keeping it adjusted. Our work on
this idea soon caused us to eliminate GER
tain things that theoretically we had con-
sidered necessary. We kept cutting off this
and that and finally new idea came to
us by mere accident and we tested it. Find
ing that it would work perfectly we dis
carded our other system and began on this
gradually taking from it many of the first
features, until now it contains nothing but
a simple adaptation of the old Morse sys-
TEN. with the exception of a special relay
which we will trains. which will be
somewhat different from the common in
strument'
EDUCATORS SUMMER SCHOOL.
Crnn Mt In RI.