The age-herald., 1898-07-28
SOME INVENTORS
 AND THEIR CAREERS
From the New York Sun.

veteran railroad man. "The pioneer cab was made and attached to the locomotive Gen. Putnam, on the Norwich and Worces- pairer in the employ of that company. Up to that time the only protection the engl- neer and fireman had from the elements was the dome on the boiler. The engineers themselves had nver thought of the pos- sibility of having shelter. Ross never got any credit for the idea and the practical application of it beyond his own railroad and his genius was so slightly appreciated even there that he remained a car-repairer and nothing more so long as he was in that companys employe
 lie designed the snow blow in the winter Of lS4S The workmen who constructed it were careless in putting on the iron, and on the trial trip of the new appliance the ron scraper was torn loose and the loco- motive was thrown down an embankment Killing the engineer, a man named Robin son, who brought from the Boston Locomo- tive works in 183S the first locomotive that ever ran between Norwich and Worcester. He brought it from Boston by boat from Norwich and was the locomotive on which
 
 snow blow. It is doubtful If either the name of Ross or Robinson is known to a single engineer or locomotive builder today.
 Notwithstanding the value of the loco- motive cab, it was not adopted by any of the locomotive builders or railroads out of New England for several years. The New Jersey railroad was the first of the other railroads to attach it to locomotives. This was in 1S46 or 1S47. The Erie railroad, al- though it had been the leader in adopting railroad Improvements, and was the orig inator of many of them, had no locomotive with cab on in its service until 1s4S.
 "Joe Meginnis, known to this day as the dandy engineer was the man who got it on. Meginnis was one of the original en- gineers on the Erie road when it was opened to Goshen, in 1S41. He had the curl ous knack of keeping himself spick and span on his engine, and always dismounted from it at the end of his run dressed as if he was going to a party-kid gloves, silk hat and all. One time in 1S49 he went on 8 pleasure trip down in New Jersey. There he saw for the first time locomotive with d cab. It took Joe Meginnis' aesthetic eye, and when 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 locomitive, which was known as the Orange: Brandt put him off with a promise. He made the de- mand frequently after that, but nothing was done toward providing the cab. At last Joe went to H. C. Seymour, the gen. eral superintendent, and told him that un- less cab was put on his locomotive he would quit the road. That settled it. They couldn't afford to lose Joe Meginnis, so Seymour ordered the Orange to the Pier mont shops and had a cab put on her That was the first locomotive cab on the Erie, and no engines were ever built for the road after that without one. H. c. Seymour, by the way resigned from the Erie in 1S49 to become state engineer of New York, and he afterwards took the $9,000000 contract for building the Ohio and Mississippi rail- road, the largest railroad contract that had ever been taken by one man up to that time He died before the work was com- pleted.
 "L B. Davis, the man who invented the cowcatcher-an attachment to locomotives that should have brought millions to it's originator-is still living, hale and hearty.
 
 two engineers alive today who ran loco- motives before cabs or coweatchers were thought of, and before the locomotive whis- tie was known in this country The other survivor of those pioneer railroad days is Ben Hafner, of Port Jarvis, who ran a To- comotive from 1S3S to 1890. Davies never re- ceved a cent for his invention, not even so much, as he told me once, as free ride over the railroad whose engines he origi- nally equipped with it. Davies is native of Kennebec, Me. In 1886 he came to New York; where he got a job on Commodore Vanderbilts famous steamboat, the Cleo patra. The next year he went to Ohio and helped build the Little Miami railroad. He was the engineer on the first passenger train on that road when it opened in 1S39 thus being the first engineer the first locomotive on Ohios first road He subse- quently entered the service of the Colum- bus and Xenia Railroad company, and it was while running a locomotive on that railroad, about 1S49, that he conceived the idea of the pilot or cowcatcher.
 "The first cowcatcher was row of sharp spikes, four feet long, fastened in the bump CT of the engine foot apart and a foot above the track It was a cowcabcher, and no mistake There were no headlights on locomotives in those days, and, as cattle and all kinds of live stock had free run of the country, scarcely night passed on any railroad that some COW, or hog, or horse was not impaled on these spikes, much to the peril of the train and it's passengers. The dangerous character of this cruel trap was a source of constant apprehension to engineers, and Engineer Davies, at least, spent much time thinking how it could be improved.
 "One day, while he was making his trip and thinking the subject of improving his cowcatchef, he noticed farmer blowing in field near the railroad. The manner in which the mold board of the blow threw the earth to one side as it moved along in the furrow at once gave him the idea that developed plans of the modern Locomotive pilot. The action of the mold board on the side was just the action that was necessary to make a pilot useful attachment in- stead of dangerous one, but the motion was one-sided. It did not take Davies long, though, to see that by putting together a device that became virtually blow with two mold boards he could accomplish the desired result Arriving at Columbus he