The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-02
RAILROAD DEVICE
 WILL SAVE LIFE New Friction Draft Gears are Tested Successfully SAFETY IN COLLISION colIiding of Trains Does Not Mean That One or Both of Them Will
 Be Reduced to kindIino
 Wood.
SAFETY IN COLLISION
From the New York Herald.

From the New York Herald
 The collidng of railroad trains at an or dlnary rate of speed does not necessarily mean that one or both train need be re- duced to kindliug wood and the passen- gers and tralnmen be killed, crippled, mained and burned to cinders In a. re- cent experiment at East Pittsbtrg before 800 people a train travelling forty miles an hour ran into train standing still The collision resulted only in coupling up ! the train making a whole train of the two sections, which, according to experi- ence, should have been twisted into all sorts of fantastic shapes, the rail twisted into curves and the train crew compelled | to either jump for their lives or be buried amid the wreckege
 | It was trying moment for the 800 peo- l pie, about 300 of whom were practical railroad men from abroad, here attend ing the International Railway Congress- | Most of them had experienced wrecks in some shape and they were dubious about this Washington exhibition. Most of them kept a safe distance away from | the tracks at the Interworks railroad which Is stretched between East Pittsburg and WllInerding. A train of fifty cars had been coupled to locomotive. This | train was divided into three equal parts. | The locomotive took one third of the cars up the track about two miles, then back down on the motionless sections at a speed of forty miles an hour.
 | 1t is doubtful if any but George West 1 inghouse and his employees saw what hap pened. Everybody else shut his eyes in- | voluntarily as the engineer opened the l steam whistle, which gave an unearthly | shrfa n that the lever back, giving the engine it's full | head of steam, evidently intending to | brush the obstruction ahead aside, just as the old engineers did when cow got on the track. The maxim is If you have to hit it, hit it hard"
 The moving train rushed at the one standing quietly on the track with terrible momentum. Spectators continued backing away. Crash-the moving train bore down | on the motionless cars, and the whole | train both sections, shivered and Surged l and tugged for an instant, then founded | down with all its force on the third sec-
 ton standing on the track few hun dred feet away. for the two trains had now become one, and in spite of the loss
 of shock in the first collision there was | enough momentum left to demolish both trains in the second shock. The spectators
 rushed to see the result of the second collision. having been embroidered by the first shock and its result. but the tram
 was too quick and the whole fifty cars were coupled together in a twinkling with out the splintering of a piece of steel or
 the chipping of piece of cast iron.
 MT Westinghouse had been yindicated. l The engineer and train crew remained In their places unruffled. The spectators were unhurt.
 Hidden under each car back of the coup
 ling were two friction draft gears. Tho l icio had force these, and the cars remained on the track; they did not crowd one another but kept the | train moving in the original direction without surging Backward, and all the couplings or valves, air hose and mechan- ism remained intact and at the command | of the engineer.
 The friction draft gear is a hollow malleable iron cylinder of 12 inches in di- ameter and 90 inches long. It contains nu- | fte -aus pieces of springs, steel rips wedges and pins, which hold together the many parts and cause the whole to work
 automatically without further attention | from the engineer after the train is made
 up The 24 steel strips shaped like "
 do the work of taking mp the shock of
 collision. They are tightly fitted Into | grooves. and it requires the tremendous
 force of a blow from a steam hammer or a moving train eoliding against a sim liar obstacle to force the strips back into the grooves. Ine z4 Strips Wofh lnde- ! pendently of each other, each fitted to segment inside the main cylinder. But the force Of collision sets the A strips in motion at the same time. and forces them l back into the grooves.
 Back of each strip is spring and
 after the pressure on the strip Is relieved this spring shoves the strip back into It's
 original position ready for another shock
 or even a recoil from the original shock
 Inside of the segments holding the strips
 Is large spring fitted on mandre l which takes up the ordinary pressure from the chain. The coupler of the car
 rubs against this steel spring while the
 train is moving or being made up, and does not come into contact with the frlc-