The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-08-28
55555R Whitman Bee!!

WI doss@ W1'!-'@' =
The city Of Washington is not only the
clearinghouse for the inventive product
Of the country as represented by the Unit
ed States Patent Office. but it has been
the place Of origin of many important in
ventions. among the latest of which is the
Buell. Cab Signal and Automatic Train
Stop, an epoch making invention, of which
Joseph Whitman Buell., of this city. is
the author.
Here in this city the patient and Hire
Quilted toll of Samuel Morse (of whom
Mr. Buell. is a lineal descendanO gave
birth to the first telegraph line between
this city and Baltimore, that has fructi-
fed into a network of telegraph lines.
which became the great nerve system of
INSTRUMENTATION, that carries the It'd
ings of the world with the swiftness Of
thought TO every section of the country
and globe: and here was invented the tel
ephone, which gave speech the wings Of
electricity. and by means of which mill
lions of spoken words are carried daily
over the wires; here also originated the
telephone transmitter, that made telepho-
ny one of the great mechanisms of uni
versal communications; here was produced
the invention of moving pictures: both
the linotype of Mergenthaler and the
monotype of Lanston; the machine gun
and high-explosive shells of Gathmann:
the wireless telephone of Squeers; and
here in this city the aeroplane had its
birth in correct theory through the eff
forts Of the immortal Langley.
And now this city promises TO be the
origin of the successful Cab Signal and
Automatic Train Stop. by reason of the
important and interesting achievement Of
Mr.. Buell..
This Invention 4. rs Much n National
Necessity and Asset the
Air Brake.
The Cab Signal and Automatic Stop is
one of the most important inventions in
rsiroading that has blessed the travelling
public since the advent of the Air Brake.
II is one of those great and valuable in
ventions that not only deals effectively
with the humanitarian side of railway
travel. but il is equally important as an
economic factor and one that will be felt
in all coming of time.
II it is all that is claimed II will not
only do away with the awful death-deal-
ing destruction occasioned by railroad
wrecks and will be the means of saving
thousands of human lives. but 1t will also
lie able to save millions of dollars in
wrecks and destruction of property and
the damage wrought by the subtraction
from the earnings of our great railroads
in this country.
Furthermore IL manifests an economic
importance in that il can be turned from
matter of expense on busy roads TO
matter of saving and income because lie
Automatic stop is an accelerator of traf-
tiC as it is capable of doubling or treb-
ling the present attainable traffic capac-
itv of steam and electric surface Dads,
aid thereby obtains more revenue fr ON a
fixed track mileage
A system of such a character that VIII
take a wider range under the conditl pns
that now and will obtain. which will min
irrize cost, and that will stand guar
where other protective measures fail.
and that will eliminate the elements
OF error and responsibility. and that is
adapted for use alone or with any c-her
system with economic results will not
only produce an epoch making invention.
hut will have an exceptional comm :-cial
opp 1rtunity.
The Buell. Achievement.
On account OF so many new triumrhs in
the world Of invention. that have fol- WED
one another in such rapid successful IN
recent years, such as Wireless Telecra
ply, Photograp hing the Unseen by the
S-Rays, the employment of submarines
and aeroplanes. their advent may be con-
sidered by some to impair what might be
called the dramatic power of an inven-
ton which will automatically flash sig
nal in the cab and stop a locomotive haul
ing a heavy train travelling at the rate of
seventy-f1ve miles an hour, within short
distance and in the face of unseen dan
ger, but the feat is enough to stir the
Imagination, and especially of those who
have witnessed such a performance Of
the Buell. System. on a stormy night
when all Is blackness and the roadside
signal lights were invisiblel, and who
have by actual observation seen the light
In the cab flashed into the engineers
face and have beheld the smooth reduc-
ton of speed and stoppage of the train
within a short distance from topp'" s'
speed.
Such an experience is one that IS full
OF gripping realism and one may well be
astounded at such performance Hher
they learn that this most telling WORK Of
arresting a giant power in flight has
taken place with but a trifing movement
OF a small part on the locomotive and
with nothing but the naked rails to cu:i-
vey a feeble electric current that pro-
vides a zone of influence ranging a mile
ahead.
Furthermore. the achievement is all the
more interesting in that It comes like the
Westinghouse Air Brake at a critical re-
Rod in the industrial history of trans
portation and signaling, for the time is
certainly ripe and the conditions pecu-
liarly propitious for an enterprise based
on such brilliant invention.
What such an invention means in the
saving of lives and property can readily
be appreciated. and IL is indeed SUI pris-
ing that notwithstanding the awfu. era
OF railroad wrecks which the country
has witnessed the past eleven years al d
the insistent demand for better safe-
guarding railway trafic. that the efforts
of other inventors In the direction OF pro-
ducing a satisfactory Cab Signal ami Au-
tomato Stop for steam and electr-c sur
face roads have been so fruitless.
Brains of full weight have be al fuIIs
at this problem by those who could de
vote their energies to no higher purpose
than the, conservation of human life, but
such efforts have been misdireeted IN the
manner of obtaining a suitable track CON-
nection. and have broken fruitles5ly TN
the solid rock Of engineering difficulty.