The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-14
A SIMPLE DEVICE
 ID STOP WRECKS Boston and Maine Road Is Test
 ing the Scheme REACH TRAIN ANYWHERE Some of the Wonderful Advantages of the Telemeter in Warning
 Engineers of Danger From
 Dispatchers Office.
REACH TRAIN ANYWHERE

From the Boston Herlad.
 When they want the operator, they want him quick. If he can't be reached 1t means a disastrous wreck and loss of life.' observed an inventor. But with the telemeter any point can be reached on railway system. If the operator can- not be got by wire, then a signal can be thrown by the dispatcher to hold up any train at any point
 He was talking about device which is being experimented with on a section of the Boston and Maine railroad. It had been mentioned that in one year 600O rear and front end railway collisions had oc- cured in the United States. The killed and injured had numbered in these dis asters HOO passengers and 4S,000 em- ployes. And the property loss had been SIC, ,000, 600.
 Some of the greatest wrecks of America have been due to the inability of train dispatchers to get the operator at a given point Perhaps he was absent somewhere in the station yard on the company's bus mess. For country operator Is generally station agent. freight agent and baggage master 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 rushing to destruc- tion.
 That is where the telemeter would do the trick, according to the inventor. It wouldn't make any difference should the operator be absent from his post If he were within hearing he would be sum moned by a gong. The same would wake him when he was asleep. Should he be out of earshot and the train dispatcher did not receive response to his call, sig nal could be shown by the dispatcher at the point received by the simple process of pressing key.
 For instance, suppose a telemeter were attached to a telegraph line between Bos- ton and Portland, Me The operator would be able to call any station without dis turbing any other station. This system IS so organized that it may be quickly ap- piled to a line without modification of the existing apparatus.
 If a train were to pass given point be- tween these two stations and 1t was nec- essary to catch that train at the next station to prevent collision with an- other-that Is where the telemeter would be 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 @ wreck. After the dispatcher had tried to get the operator and received no answer to his signals, he would then press his keys to throw his semaphore, and the colored light signal which would bring the train to a standstill at that sta ton.
 What telegraphers say is the beauty of this contrivance is that the dispatcher can call any station on the system, and over a single line without disturbing in the least the ordinary business or work ing of the telegraph. The telemeter Is simple in construction, Is attachable to the present telegraph wires, and requires no additional wire whatever. Further 1 it does not interfere with the usual tele- graph instruments in actual operation | and enables the dispatcher to place him | self into immediate communication with | any operator on his line.
 | The telemeter seems to be human, only | more unerring. For after the dispatcher l has failed to raise the operator by sound l ing the call and then the gong, he set. | the signal for the train to stop. Imme l diately there comes to him a response au i tomatically. telling whether the signal ha. | acted or not.
 It enables the dispatcher to set ant | display any semaphore or light on hi | line from his own office. And it returns l information as to whether that particua l semaphore or light has been set. No oper ator on the line can tamper with it il
 any way, so that false signals cannot b l shown.
 In their State street offices one of tn