The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-02-04
TESTING CAR TENDERS.
With Dummies, Although Inventor
 Offered to Risk Himself.

mics at the street car fender trials thi. forenoon. On the whole, the life
 saving qualities of lenders came near
 CT being demonstrated at this second
 series of trials by the Railroad Com.
 mission than they were at the trials
 last week, and although the same strir
 of track in Homer street, Newton. was
 the trial ground, the tests were made
 more quickly than before.
 There were twenty three separate
 tests between 10 a. n., and noon, with
 six different devices. Only lay figures
 stuffed with sand were used, but
 there would have been one trial with
 Tive bait" if the commissioners had
 been willing, and the Newton Street
 Railway Company had been ready to
 risk a subsequent claim for damages.
 Benjamin Lev, of Cleveland, proposed
 to stand in front of the car while his fender was being tried. He said he
 had been picked up by It in previous
 sign off on all damage claims.
 But the representatives of the rail-
 way company preferred to have the
 papers drawn up In the due form, if any such test were to be made, and
 Railroad Commissioners Bishop and White, who were present without Chairman Jackson, decided that the official test should be with dummies. There will be another series of trials on Friday, November g. at 1O:3O a. m. at the same place. and by that time Ley may possibly arrange to risk his life in the manner he proposses.
 The device before which Lev agreed to pose as victim was self-tripping affair, consisting of an upright frame of light metal stripes, so mounted as to prevent the unfortuuates head from being slammed against the dash board; and tilting platform of metal strips hanging at the forward edge of a short horizontal platform, in front. With the dummy standing upright be- tween the rails, and the car running him down at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour, the forward edge of the of the tilted platform no sooner struck the dummy's legs than it folded back and locked against the horizontal one, the dummy prostrate and apparently uninjured.
 When the dummy was laid flat be- tween the rails this fender was not intended to act, but instead a complet- mentary device under the car in front of the wheels took care of him. This consisted of a horizontal bar, so mounted that after the fender out in front had passed over the form of a protrate victim, the bar, striking him, jumped upward, allowing a row of curving prongs, or fingers with blunted ends, to scrape along the ground and push him away from the wheels. It was intended that If any two or three prongs should ride up over any part of the body they would yield sufficiently to leave him unharm- ed, while the other prongs in the row performed their saving office; and on two trials the device proved successful so far as saving the dummy was con cerned, though in scraping along the on the last trial two or three prongs were bent completely backward and were made worthless.
 Another device tested was merely a wheel guard, consisting of a metal plough set just in front of the wheels. to be of service only in case B person was thrown under a car, it 5ccraped the dummy out of harms way thrice. with no further damage than the loss of one hand.
 A fender that was much like a fixed shelf. or half box, with mesh of iron wire, but with an extension that drop ped down from the forward edge rid Ing along close to the rail level on 6 roller. was tried three times with the dummy standing up, and each time it picked him up with neatness and dis batch, breaging his neck very deftly in the opeartion. Tried twice with the dummy prostrate on the track, the de- vice in one case pushed him outside he rails apparently unharmed, and in he other case pushed him ahead until he car stopped when his only injury vas a crushed arm.
 Two lenders that figured n the irst series of tests were tried again,with somewhat better success. Each scored ,lean pickups with the dummies stand- ng up failed to save them from broken lecks or crushed heads, as they were ,ent flying back against the dash yoard. In one case the sandmans lead struck the dashboard such blows hat they could be heard some dis ance away like the boom of bass rum,
 While one of these lenders was be- ng tried on man, sine dummy, pros- rate, Commissioner White quietly sug- rested that the boy dummy be pushed n front of the car unexpectedly as it approached the larger victim. This vas done. It furnished a good illus ration of a child running in front of me car from around the end of anoth T. but in this case the fender failed 0 save the youngster and his head vas cut off quite ignominiously un- Ter the very wheels.
 The other fender tried consisted of , horizontal platform, held partly by prings at its rear edge, so that it would yield backward and tilt it's for yard edge downward when striking | victim. It's forward edge was a rub ,er roll or cushion, with a hard roller ust beneath to prevent a body from
 ldng under without being picked up. An apron was supposed to keep the rictim from bounding back against the