The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-11-13
Neither Fame Nor Money for It's
Inventor, W. M. Ross.
NO CREDIT FOR THE IDEA
He Also Built the First Snow Plough and
Failed to Get q Reward SINH
lar Experience OF the Cow
catcher's Inventor.

tive snoW pioW, uleu recently IN Con
necticut," said a veteran railroad man
The pioneer cab vas made and at
tached to the locomotive General Put.
man,. or the Norwich & Worcester rail.
road. in 1872. Ross was a car repairer
in the employ of the company. Up "a
that time the only protection the engl-
neer and fireman had from the ele-
ments was the dome Of the boiler. The
engineers themselves had never thought
Of the possibility of having shelter.
Ross never got n credit for his idea
and the practical application of 1t be-
yond his own railroad, and his genius
was so lightly appreciated even there
that he remained a car repairer and
nothing more as long as he was In that
company's employ.
He designed the snow pillow in the
winter Of 1s43. The workmen who con-
structed IL were careless in putting on
h iron. and on the trial trip of the
new appliance the iron scraper was
torn loose and the locomotive was
thrown down an embankment, killing
the engineer. a man named Robinson,
who brought from the Boston Locomo-
tive works, In 1888. the first locomotive
that ever ran between Norwich and
Worcester. He brought IT from Bos-
ton by boat to Norwich, and Il was
the locomotive on which he was killed
while testing the original snow pillow.
IL Is doubtful II the name of either
Ross or Robinson Is known to a single
engineer or locomotive builder of to-
day.
Notwithstanding the value of the To-
connective cab. IL was not adopted by
any of the locomotive builders or rail-
roads out OF New England for several
years. The New Jersey railroad was
the first of the other railroads to attach
II to locomotives. This was in 1886 or
1S4I. The Erie railroad, although ID
had been the leader in adopting rail-
road improvements and was the orig
inator OF many OF them. had no loco
motive with a cab on in its service un-
til 1s4s.
Joe Meginnls. known TO this day as
the dandy engineer was the mar who
got IL on. Meginnis was one of the
original engineers on the Erie road
when IL was opened to Goshen in 1S41.
He had the curious knack of keeping
himself spick and span on his engine,
n always ~dismounted from IL at the
n Of his run dressed as IL he was
going to a party-kid gloves. silk hat
and all. One time In ls49 he went on a
pleasure trip down in New Jersey.
There he saw for the first time a loco
motive with a cab. IL too Joe Me-
ginnis's aesthetic eye, and whe he
went back to work he made a demand
on John Brandt, who was the first
master mechanic of the Erie, for a cab
to be attached to his locomotive, which
was known as the Orange. Brandt put
him on with a promise. He made the
frequently after that. but moth
ing was done toward providing the cab.
At last Joe wen to II. G. Seymour the
general superintendent, and told him
that unless a cab was put on his loco
he would quit the road That
IL. They couldn't afford to lose
Joe Meginnis. so Seymour ordered the
Orange To the Piermont shops and had
a a put on her. That was the first
cab OF the Erie, and no
engines were ever built for the road
that without one. H.. c. Seymour,
by the way. resigned from the Erie in
1si9 TO become State Engineer of New
York. n he afterward took the So
0o0. 900 contract for building the Ohio
and Mississippi railroad, the largest
contract that had ever been
taken by n man up to that time. He
before the work was completed.
IL. Ii. Davis. the nan who invented
the cowcatcher-an attachment to To-
that should have brought
to its o~riginator-is still living.
hale and hearty. at Columbus. q. and
he IL one OF the only two engineers alive
who ran locomotives before cabs
or cowcatchers were thought of. and
the locomotive whistle was
known in this country. The other sur
vivor of those pioneer railroad days Is
Ben Haine OF Port Jervis, who ran a
locomotive from 1888 to 1890. Davies
never received a cent for his invention.
even 50 much. as he told me once,
as a free ride over the railroad whose
he originally equipped with II.
is a native of Eennebec. Me.
In 1886 he came to New York where he
a job on Commodore Vanderbilt's
steamboat. the Cleopatra. The
next yea ne went 10 Ohio and helped
the Little Miami railroad. He
the engineer on the first passenger
train on that Dad when IL opened in
1899. thus being the first engineer on
first locomotive OF Ohio's first rail-
He subsequently entered the SER
vice of the Columbus and Nenia rail-
road company. and IL was while run
ming "a locomotive on that road. about
ls4s. that he conceived the idea of the
pilot or cowcatcher.
The first cowcatcher was a row Of
sharp spikes. four feet long. fastened
in the bumper of the engine a %
apart and a foot above the track. IL
vas a cowcatcher, and no mistake.
There were no headlights on locomo-
tives i'm those days. and as cattle m
all kinds of live stock hal free run of
he country. scarcely a night passed
n railroad that some COW or hog
or horse was not impalsd on these
much to h peril of the train
and its passengers. The dangerous
character OF his cruel trap vas a
source OF constant apprehension to en-
g~ineers. n Engineer Davies. at least,
spent much time thinking how IL might
be improved.
zone day while he was making his
trip and thinking on the subject of
the cowcatcher. he noticed a
ploughing in a field lear the
The manner in which the
mould board OF the plough threw the
to one side as Il moved along in
the furrow at once gave him the idea !