The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1899-12-21
COMPRESSED AIRS USES.
VARIED WORK WHICH 1T is BEING
MADE TO DO NOWADAYS.


All are familiar with the uses o.
compressed air in bicycle tires, in
door brakes, in pneumatic mattresses,
and in the department store cash tube
system, to mention few modern ap
olications, which, however, are move
40 longer. But does every one know
that baskets are now made by com.
pressed air, that statuary is chiselled
oy it, that carpets and furniture are
cleaned and busted by it, that build
.ngs are painted by it, and that mod
,rn train service would be out of the
question were it not for the practical
Efficiency of air under pressure? Out
,ide OF the engineering world how
many people imagine the scope and
he multitudinous uses of airtools and
machinery in the building of bridges,
in the carving out of tunnels, in al
most every branch OF mining, in ship
building, etc.?
A NECESSITY IN RAILIoADING.
Riding on modern, thoroughly
ssuipped railroad, did it ever occur
20 you that air is used to signal and
steer the train and to work the brak es
That the carpets, the cushions and
;he furniture of the coaches are cleaned
and busted by pneumatic brushes; that
;he cars are painted by pneumatic
oaint-spraying machines, and, to
mention the latest appliances, that
he baggage is handled by air elevators,
the bell rung by pneumatic ringer
After eighteen years of costly and
extensive experimenting, the pneu-
matic interlocking signal and switch
system has been made success and u
fixture at the leading terminal sta
lions in this country. By its aid one
nan now does the work that would
otherwise require the combined efforts
Of six operators, and he does the work
better, the chances of his making mis-
takes having been reduced to a mini
mum. The system in use at the Bos-
ton Southern station in the largest
known. There are no fewer than 239
pneumatic switches in operation,
eleven trains may move simultaneous
ly into or out OF the train shed, 148
semaphore signals ar provided for the
400 possible routes presented in the
switch system of that terminal.
AIR AS CLEANSER.
Cleaning car cushions and carpets
by compressed air has lately been in
troduced. A pipe fattened at the end
until it is almost the shape of spade
is used. The air rushes through per-
forations at the thin, wide end, clean
ing the material without touching it,
at much swifter rate, and much
more thoroughly than ordinary brooms
or brushes could. Besides, the wear
and tear consequent on beating the
material is done away with, which is,
of itself, great saving. Armed with
single pneumatic cleaner one man
can do more work in less time than
three men could formerly do with
canes and brushes. AS for painting
cars the pneumatic paint spraying
machines now in the market are even
superior to those used in painting the
Worlds Fair buildings in Chicago in
1898. A painting machine has been
invented that will coat 46, 900 square
feet of surface in six hours and half
in the hands of skillful operator.
Painting by air is not only immeasur-
ably swifter and cheaper than old
fashioned brush work, but it has been
demonstrated that paint supplied by
the air machine is applied more thor
oughly and is more durable than
brush painting. The Pittsburg and
Lake Erie Railroad, the Louisville
and Nashville Railroad and the Illi-
nois Central Railroad were pioneers
in this field. The last road is at pres
ent repainting about 400 cars a week
with compressed air, while the Louis
vile and Nashville Railroad recently
covered eighty-dve buildings under
this method in record breaking time.
The Grand Rapids and Indiana
Railroad has gone one step further by
lately adopting the pneumatic baggage
handler system, This device has
proved itself able to handle heavy
baggage much more rapidly than it
could otherwise be handled, and,
moreover, to do away with breakage.
The day of ths baggage-smasher may,
therefore, bs past. The machine is
a very simple arrangement of air cy-
Under and baggage support. The
latter is lowered to the platform where
it receives the baggage. Then it rises
quickly and is automatically swung
around by cam action, carrying the
baggage into the car. The lift is oper-
ated by air drawn from the train tanks
to special reservoir. and it is con-
trolled by the baggageman. The ma
chine has lifting capacity of 500
pounds, with seventy pounds of air
pressure; it has spring scale device
providing for the weighing of the bag
gage as it is handled, and it is able to
load trunks at tie rate of six pieces
every thirty-fve seconds. For coun-
try stations where now there is only
one man to handle the baggage with
the usual disastrous results, this de-
vice will save many trunk from be-
ing damaged or smashed.
If you wish to hear locomotive bells
rung by compressed air you must take
a train on the Kansas City, st. Joseph
& Council Bluffs Railroad, on which
line number of prominent bell ring
ers are in operation, giving admirable
results.
AIR TOOLS FOR BRIDGE BUILDING.
1t would be impossible to do the
high class work of modern bridge
building construction without the aid