Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1898-10-21
NEW SIGNALING STATION.
Life and Property Saving Device Tested
Successfully.


Successfully.
Everyone who travels, no matter how
little, ON any part Of Americas far
reaching steel network Of railroads,
will breathe freer when 1t is known
that the efficiency and practicability
of an automatic electric signal system
were demonstrated yesterday at an ex-
hibition on the Fletcher quarry spur
Of the Boston and Maine railroad near
Lowell The trial Of this life and
property saving device was complete
and convincing. An interested COM
pany of about 100 persons watched the
demonstration. The railroad disas-
tiers that occur yearly have directed
attention of the public to the need Of
some unfailing system Of train sig
mailing through which risk OF life
might be to a large extent eliminated
from steam travel. Extreme simpli-
city characerizes the system. The ap-
paratus, in brief, consists Of small
dynamo in the cab Of each locomotive.
occupying less than twelve inches of
space; a bell in each cab and at every
grade crossing, and third rail in the
middle of the roadbed, running the
length of the road, for the transmission
Of the electric current. The third rail
used at the trial was a strip of wood,
with thin strip Of iron on each edge.
The two strips Of iron, however, are
necessary only when trains are run
both ways on the same track. The
signaling is entirely automatic and
unfailing. The first trial yesterday
illustrated the simultaneous warning.
given both in the engine and at the
grade crossing, at the approach of a
train by the bells. The alarm in this
instance lasts until the crossing is
passed. The engine then approached
an ordinary fiat car. and warning was
sounded in the cab the moment the
locomotive got within danger distance.
The third test was with a misplaced
switch, the bell continuing to ring un-
til the switch was set right. The new
system accomplishes the following re-
suits: 1t locates and signals every
moving train on a roadbed within
mile of another train. Both engineers
receive the signal. The operation OF
the signal itself is as simple as the
ringing of an electric doorbell. Fogs,
darkness, smoke, tunnels. curves, snow
storms, or anything else that would
tend to obscure the vision Of the en-
gineer have no effect upon the system,
for vision has nothing to do with it.
When train is stopped on the road
a following train or a train coming in
the opposite direction on the same
track is signaled the instant it gets
within the danger limit of mile. An
other feature, similar to the signaling
Of an open switch, is that OF a car pro-
jecting from a siding and not clearing
the main track. An open drawbridgs
is signaled in the same way as is the
sweeping away Of stationary bridge,
or the washing away of any portion
of the track along the roadbed. At a
grade crossing large gong is placed.
When train is within the danger lin
1t the striker begins to operate, and
continues until the train has passed
the crossing, thus bringing the trav-
eler, on foot or driving, to a realizing
sense Of danger. In case of a wreck, q
following train, or one approaching
from the opposite direction, is sig
nailed without loss of time in going
backward or forward from the wreck.
When, as frequently happens, a train
breaks apart, the engineer receives a
signal, and signal goes back to the
following train within the danger linn
it, and this, IL desired, without the in
PRODUCTION Of any human agency. The
invention is the work of George e.
Miller, for some time an engineer with
the Thomson-Houston company.-Bos-
ton Herald.