Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-02-15
MAKES A PLEASANTER SOUND.
Foghorn Takes the Place of the ShriI
Screecher on Locomotives.

| What the marine reporter might call
| the foghorn, or steamship siren, has
become so popular with many rail-
roads for use on their locomotives
that an expert in steam whistles says
the shrill cry of the iron horse will be
a thing of the past within five years.
The majority Of the steam engines of
this country have the regulation high
noted whistle that comes out sharp
and quick from the hills, the forests,
on the plains, or wherever steel rails
are laid. 1t is not quite as trying on
the nerves as the celebrated penny
whistles of the locomotives of Eng
land, but it lacks the deep, musical
foot of the gong which many of the
iron horses now carry.
The New England Railroad was
about the first road to introduce the
understanding steamboat whistle
in the east. When George Gould
heard it for the first time on a loco
motive of the New York and Putnam
Road he was so charmed with it that
he Immediately changed many of the
whistles on the engines of the Missouri
Pacific.
The steamboat whistle is a great
deal more expensive than the regula-
ton one, but it hasn't the waking
the dead qualities of the latter
though it has many more redeeming
features.
Talking of whistles" said an old
railroad man to Mail Express re-
porter, Il think the unfortunate
steamboat Golden Rule. that was so
well known between Cincinnati and
New Orleans, had the star one There
was no mistaking that whistle. The
Golden Rule was burned, and, after
the fire spent its fury 100 pirates set
to work to find her whistle. It was
discovered buried deep among the
debris, and then the pirates had
bloody fight for its possession. Two
hardened Wretches lasted longer than
the others, and secured the prize. They
sold it for old brass, and threw in
their good will in the bargain. That
whistle has had more lives than a
cat going from this boat to that boat,
and not long since after years of
travel, it was purchased by Captain
James H. Williams and placed on the
tug Hercules Carrel of Cincinnati 1t
is every bit as musical now as it was
twenty-five years ago.
Il know many railroad men who
distinguish trains solely by their
whistles of all locomotives on any
particular road are supposed to be
alike in construction as we'll as sound.
1t is common thing to have a man
say, That is No. Ill or There goes
444' when he hears the loot of a loco
motive. 1t is the same way at sea, I'm
told. A friend of mine, a sea captain,
says that he has often established the
identity of ship by her whistle when
she passed him in fog, or even when
it was his watch below and he couldn't
see the craft as she went by.
Right in this harbor, and I don't
follow it closely, either, I can close my
boats as they go along. All through
their whistles, too. l am sorry that
the calliope has gone from the water.
The General Slocum, with her chime
whistles, used to bring back to me the
the General Sedgwick and the Ply
mouth Rock.
whistles? Why, they are the voices
of the story of steam, and speak as
plainly as you and l do. l don't think
that two men were created with the
same voice, and as for whistles, there
never were two alike in sound. If you
doubt it make a study of the subject
as l have done New York Mail and
Express.