Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1913-08-06
AN AUTOMATIC sTop.
Nearly 5000 Inventors Entered for
Pres. MeiIen's $40, 900 offer.

July 4, oH that GATE Z.nlb persons nau
entered the competition, the number in-
dioating the unusual interest which Mr..
Mellen's offer has excited. The applicants
represent every country, including China,
Japan and Australia.
While 2,si6 persons have responded to
the original offer, and may be said to have
entered the composition, only 7ol OF the
applicants thus far have submitted plans
in reply to the circular sent 10 each appli.
cant giving the conditions and require
ments of the competition. This does not
eliminate the others, because the eondi-
lions prescribe that to be acceptable q
device must be adopted for general use by
either the New Haven, the Pennsylvania
or the New York Central reads "si;hin
the years 1918, 1914 or 1851. Consequently
any inventor who got bis name on the list
OF applicants on or before July has the
right Of qualifying until Jan. /, 1916.
The amount of labor involved In this
offer may be estimated from the fact that
c. IL. Morrison, chief signal engineer OF
the New Haven, who has been placed in
charge of the competition, mp to July had
written s,od2 letters, and l,ss3 copies OF
patents had been obtained.
One of the reasons underlying the offer
was the fact that there is mo automatic
stopping device in regular operation on
any Of the steam surface roads OF this
country, though some roads are conduct
ing experimental tests. The New Haven
road, however, is the only road which has
thus far offered q reward to inventors for
such device. The stopping devices
operated on some elevated and sub
way lines, notably in the New York
subway, while effective on such lines,
have not been designed to meet some OF
the conditions required by steam surface
lines, one of these being the ability OF the
device to work under all weather condi-
tions and to be impervious to either sleet
or snow.
In inaugurating such 4 competition the
New Haven has practically taken up the
work left unfinished by train control
board of the interstate commerce COM
mission, which went out of existence last
year. This board, appointed in 1908,
tested twenty OF the most meritorious OF
the many automatic stop devices sub
mitted. While IL did not find any which
exactly met Its requirements, II an
DouDced that some might in the near tu-
ture be developed possibly to the point
where the railroads might use them. In
asmuch as the approval OF the interstate
commerce commission would be necessary
before the New Haven would feel justified
in putting q stopping device in regular
operation, the requirements laid down by
the train control board have been adopted
as well as eight additional ones made
necessary by the peculiar conditions OF
the New Haven lines.
OF the 7pi devices Of which plans and
models have been submitted thus far, ii is
announced tina; not one has met condition
No. /, which reads: 'The apparatus
should be so constructed that the removal
or failure of any essential part would
cause the display OF a stop signal and the
application OF the train brakes, and IL
electric circuits are employed, they should
be SO designated that the occurrence Of
brake, cross or ground, or failure of the
source OF energy in any OF the circuits,
should cause the display OF a stop signal
and the application of the train brakes"
A few OF the devices already submitted
might be perfected, it is said, so as to
meet this requirement, and no doubt this
will be done. A very large percentage of
the devices have failed to embody any
speed control feature, also one OF the con-
ditions, this being provision that train
at speed less than predetermined num-
Der Of miles per hour might pass the auto
matte stopping device without application
OF the brakes. Also many have failed to
meet the requirement that the device
should work under snow, ice, sieet or
freezing conditions.
All sorts of ideas are represented in the
models and plans submitted; most OF them
show that the inventors, while intent on
fulfilling some OF the requirements, have
totally disregsrded others, particularly
that one providing that the failure Of the
device to work, such rs might be caused,
for instance, by person tsmpering with
1T, would OF itself cause 1t to stop the
train.
Despite the fact that not all OF the re-
quirements have been met, the railroad
will proceed at once to test the more
meritorious OF the devices submitted.
These tests will begin the middle of this
month, and will take place on the western
division between Hartford and Newing-
ton. The two automatic stop systems
coming the nearest to all Of the require
ments will be tested first. One is the
invention OF Gene Webb, and is the
property of the international Signal Co.;
the other is the invention of an engineer
of the Union Switch Il Signal Co. These
will be tested out practically at the same
time by the fAekawsnna road.
Obviously no award can be made until
the expiration of the year 1915, as until
then every inventor who has entered the
competition has chance SO to perfect his
device as TO make il acceptable. The re-
ward, under the condition announced, is