The Mena weekly star., 1908-07-23

I nal can be thrown by the dispatcher to hold up any train at any point"
 He was talking about device whlch is being experimented with on section of the Boston & Maine rall- road. It had been mentiones that Tn one year 5000 rear and front end raii- way collisions had occurred Tn the United States. The killed and in- jured had numbered in these disasters II ,000 passengers and 4S,0o0 em- ployes, and the property loss had been $1o,000,000.
 Some of the greatest wrecks or America have been due to the inabil- ity of a train dispatcher to get the op- orator at a given point. Perhaps ne was absent somewhere in the station yard on the company's business. Flo: country operator Is generally station agent, freight agent and baggagemas- ter combined. Or he may have been asleep. At any rate he couldn't be raised and the train dispatcher had to stand helplessly by knowing that train laden with passengers was rush ing to destruction.
 That is where the telemeter would do the trick, according to the invent or. It wouldn't make any difference should the operator be absent from his post. If he were within hearing he would be summoned by a gong. The same would wake him were he asleep. Should he be out of earshot and the train dispatcher did not receive re- sponse to his call, signal could be shown by the dispatcher at the point received by the simple process of pressing key.
 For instance, suppose telemeter were attached to telegraph line be- tween Boston and Portland, Me. The operator would be able to call any sta ton without disturbing any other sta tion. This system is so organized that it may be quickly applied to line without modification of the existing apparatus.
 If a train were to pass a given point between these two stations and 1t was necessary to catch that train at the next station to prevent collision with another-that is where the tele- meter would be a godsend. Perhaps the operator at the station the train dispatcher would try to reach could not be got No answer came to his frantic call
 If the train passed that point there must be a wreck. After the dispatcher had tried to get the operator and re- ceived no answer to his signals, he would then press his keys to throw the semaphore. and the colored light sig. nal which would bring the train to standstill at that station.
 What telegraphers say is the beauty of this contrivance is that the dis patcher can call any station on the system, and over a single line, with out disturbing in the least the ordi- nary business or working of the tele- graph. The telemeter is simple in con- struction, is attachable to the present telegraph wires, and requires no addi- tional wire whatever. Furthermore, it does not interfere with the usual telegraph instruments in actual opera tion, and enables the dispatcher to place himself into immediate commu- nication with any operator on his line.
 The telemeter seems to be human, only more unerring. For after the dispatcher has failed to raise the op- orator by sounding the call and then the gong, he sets the signal for the train to stop. Immediately there comes to him a response automat- ically, telling whether the signal has acted or not.
 It enables the dispatcher to set and display any semaphore or light on his line from his own office. And 1t re- turns information as to whether that particular semaphore or light has been set. No operator on the line can tam per with 1t in any way, so that false signals cannot be shown
 There is also an attachment in con nection with the instrument which is calculated to prevent delays and blockades of trains where freights in isolated sidetracks cannot be reached with orders For these attachments. placed in small boxes at every siding. can be used by the conductors of such trains to report their whereabouts. By code of signals they can be notified whether to stop or proceed. The con ductors do not require to know teleg. raphy. They have only to ring in the simplest signals.