El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-08-08

man, a good officer and q thorough
business man. He hasn't visited E
Paso In seven years and ia surprised ~
the improvements he finds to have beer
made In the city in that time. he l.
being shown over the CITY and other
wise entertained by members of tn.
chamber of commerce. AT 4 O'Clock
today he met party of citizens infor
mally. He will leave for San Francisco
In the morning.
Electric Bells for Santa Fe Cross
lngs
For the past several years the SAINT,
te has been experiment ting with electri,
bells for railroad crossings and they
have proved 80 satisfactory that the
company has decided to put them a
all crossings where traffic warrants IL
The bells are SO arranged as to ring
when the engine comes within q thous
and feet of the crossing. The cost tc
the company Is about $500 for each
bell and the placing of them at all the
main crossings of this great system
means an enormous expense to the
company, but can be looked upon only
as an economical move when it is con-
sidered that large per cent of the
damages railroad company pays is
for accidents at railroad crossings.
Great Rush On the Mexican Cen
trail
The Mexican Central round house at
Juarez was empty yesterday and when
asked what 1t meant Mr. Ogden, the
mechanical foreman, said, 1T means
business" The business of the road is
SO great that all the engines are out on
the road and then it is ell the com
pany oan do to handle their stedily in
creasing traffic. The round house has
recently been given q new coat of
paint. tits the best round house on
the road and Is kept as tidy as an
sristocratio home. However it will
have to take second place to the new
one now being built at Aguas Calien-
tes, for that one is going to be one OF
the most up-to-dats and will have the
M ost modern improvements.
An Inexplicable Owl.
As passenger train on c., 81. & D.,
railroad was approaching Findlay,
Ohio, at the rate of sixty miles an hour,
the engine bell commenced to toll and
ring in an iuexplicable, uncanuy man
ner. The train was at the time pass.
ing through a dense wood in which
two months before q farmer was run
over and killed and this fact augment
ed the belief OF the engineer and fire.
man thatft was spook that was ring
log the bell. Their hair stood strsig ht
on their heads and their
eyes bulged out with terror. while the
bell tolled on. At last the engineer
could stand the strain no longer and
he threw on the air brakes with q |
ing In heaps. The fireman, trem bling |
With terror, crawled out on the |
running board to investigate. With |
It's wings and horns tangled In the bell |
cord was q large horned owl that had |
lit on the engine while it was going |
a. full speed and had been ringing the |
bell in its efforts to release itself from |
the bell cord.
The Genius of the Sierra Madre
Line.
Douglas Stewart, the genial master
mechanic of the Sierra Madre shops,
ducing into the mechanical wor Id many
useful articles. In the shops across the |
river there are in use several pieces of |
like which there are none
In any other shop because Mr. Stewart
Invented and made them and, although
be has Q patent on some of them, he
has not made any effort to have any
% ade for sale.
One of the most important of his re.
cent-invensions 10 machine for weld
Ing, 81 edging and soaring boiler hues.
ing animation. You put your pipe
under hammer. press the lever, and
get ous of the way or get hurt, for that
hammer goes after the pipe like Q red
headed woodpecker on a dead oak
Tree. II is manipulated by compressed
sir, ~ every tool ia the shop IL, and
Mr.. Stewart is now experimenting the
aging of pipes from the pneumatic
plant in the shop to the round house,
y here the compressed air will be con-
lucted to work the tools there.
Another important thing that 10 an
original idea with Mr. Ste wart IL q hue
aw. 1t is very simple, just . small
circular saw attached to the shaft of
n emory wheel, but who but Mr. Ste
Vart would have thought about it?
The fiue is laid in a groove under the
aw and with the foot the groove is
ushed upward as the little saw cuts
apidly into the hue. Mr. Stewart has
n eightfoot comprt ssedair hoist
'uried in the center of the track by
he chop. He places a platform on this
nd by turning on the air he can rsise
weight Of several tone up to the floor
# the car on which IL Is to be loaded.
The compressed air hoist IL not an
INVENTION of his, but this way of using
{ 10 his own idea.
He has also invented fiue cleaning
machine, which cleans the hue by
evolving steel rollers which grind out
he cOrrosiOn on the inside of the hue.
lie is experimenting with the placing
4 common car draw heads on the front
# engines and has one placed one on
'asseuger engine No. l. In connection