The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1914-02-27
WIRELESS T9tTLIEGlRAIpTfEY
ION MEOWIDNG TqRAIDNSSs312as ass;Ra w.

Wv moving train promises
make railroad travel safer II
Ip9krfI the future. The beginning o
this service was started but
the other day on the Buffalo limited
OF the Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western railroad.
There are plenty OF examples oi
what the wireless has done for ocean
going shipping in the way Of spread
ing news, In giving helpful warnings
and in calling succor from afar to In
jured ships. Its application to rail-
roading will be for a somewhat differ.
! ent purpose.
The block signal system now com
monty adopted in combination with
track contacts has done wonders In re-
ducing the risk of accidents. The tow
er men are stationed every few miles.
and unless something goes wrong in
side the block the train must clear
each zone within a certain time.
When It does not do so the watcher
at the far end of the block knows
that something is amiss; but what?
The answer may be one of score OF
sarily in ignorance until some one
from the halted train brings the news.
Then, and only then, the railroad peo-
pie at distant points can be reached
by telegraph and the proper steps
taken to meet the emergency.
The trainman carrying the message
to the block tower may have to cover
a distance of a couple Of miles. This
Is not so bad in daylight and in good
weather, but what Of the situation
when there is driving snowstorm or
ice covers the ground? To reach the
tower to call for assistance then be-
comes a desperately long struggle and
the cause of delay that may imperil
many lives.
Again it happens every now and
then that an engineer fails to see eau
tionary signals which should make
him slacken speed or bring his train
to a standstill. The result may be a
collision with loss of life.
1t will therefore be seen how desir-
able it is that each train should have
its own means of creating about it
cautionary zone quite independently
Of the fixed track and block signals,
this zone to be communicable to other
trains directly, in this fashion produc
ing a safety system within a safety
system and one that would be imme-
diately available at every point along
the line.
This is not in theory novelty;
but practical accomplishment has had
to contend with many obstacles |
akin to this was evolved |
years ago in the form of signal tele- |
graph which made use Of track con-
facts at frequent points, or of mag
netic impulses aroused at stated inter
walls, but the arch enemy was the /
and especially snow and ice.
The apparatus worked well expert
until these foes to efficiency
and then the whole tech
lically beautiful installation failed to
operate. Wireless telegraphy prom
ses to do the needed work
If you look at map of the Lacka-
wanna railroad you will find that Bing-
lamton is what the railroad man calls
he neck of the traffic bottle, for there
converge no fewer than three branches
If the road. A break in train sched-
lies through any delay there may af-
ect all three of these centering
outes. Nature has added to the diff.
iculties by reason of the topography
f the country. In part of the neigh
oring mountainous section snow and
leet especially have a way Of ham
ering traffic. ,
These conditions double the task of :
he engine driver, who must watch all ,
he more carefully every signal and !
hey likewise increase immensely the :
tress upon the tower man. These cir ;
and an accident which
ccurred upon the road a year ago, +
the experiments with the :
ireless installation. There were sew T
raj serious obstacles to overcome :
Wireless telegraphy, as every one 4
nows, usually calls for tall masts or :,
'wers from which the aerials or an y
nnae can be spread, and this ele- II
ent of height and length of dispatch +,
g and intercepting filaments inhu- n
ices directly the efficiency of the ap- Il
lratus, both in creating Hertzian u
aves and in being sensitive to the r,
her vibrations having their source +,
sewhere. How, then, were these n
quirements to be met upon a swift Al
moving train?
AS matter of fact, the clearance 4,
tween the roofs of the coaches and =,
e tops of the bridges and tunnels is n,
matter of only few inches. Would re
rials as low as this answer? Only in
perimenting would solve the oues- h.
IN, and the electrical experts set %
out doing it in this way: nc
A single line of wire arranged like ed
rectangle is strung from four low on
placed at each corner of go
; car ends, actually below the crest he
the roof. By doing this upon four re-
s. giving a total length of aerials in,
something like $50 feet. an arrange re-