The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-08-28

| pened that head-on collisioI has been
followed by a tail-end collision. The
| fast train came on, and slowed down
within short distance of us.
! II went back. put on my clothes and
| shoes, and went down to the front end OF
| the train, where l saw that the engine
was turned completely upside down, her
drivers in the air. And soon we reached
! the broken. battered, lifeless forms OF
! the engineer and fireman"
One Perfect Invention Among .
Thousand.
Plunging into a description Of the
! Miller train control Mr. Hubbard con-
tinues: In the Patent Office at Wash
| ington are over a thousand registered
| safety appliances and devices for the au-
| tomato stopping of trains. And now. as
a result of this thought extending over
/ peated failures, comes an invention that
F.; is valuable beyond human computation.
: 1t is an invention which, in time of
danger, does two things-and only two.
1t closes the throttle, thus shutting off
the steam, and it applies the air brakes.
1t does this without the aid of the engi-
neer.
When an engine is equipped with this
control, no train can come near this one
from behind, nor can the train SO
equipped approach another train within
the danger zone, without first being
compelled to stop. If a rail is broken
nv acpidant rannnved a train lie
speedily brought to a dead stop. Then
the business of the engineer is to dis
cover the cause. This Is better than to
have an accident first and discover the
cause later. The best time to avert ac-
cidents is before they happen
Went West to Make an Investigation.
Hearing Of the Miller train control
made a special trip to Danville, Ill, to
investigate the idea and see for myself.
If possible, whether these things were
true" continues Mr.. Hubbard. Il had
before seen electric inventions which
have the signals in the engine, instead
of their being on poles along the track.
There are several devices of this kind
which seem to have much merit, save for
the fact that they are unreliable and can
be depended on only when conditions are
perfect In bad weather and exceptional
times they are like the human agent,
only little more so-they may fail.
IF there is an invention that will pro-
tect n train running into another one at
crossing. cross-over. in tail-end
collision, in a head-on. or through brok-
en- or removed rails. wanted to know
about II.
"Danville, as all the world knows, is
the home of a great and good man who
is always seen wearing big black cigar
pointed to the northwest This man pos
sesses one of the keenest intellects of any
individual that the United States has
produced. He is interested in farming.
banking, manufacturing, and everything
that pertains to human welfare.
"Uncle joe IndOrses Virginia Mans
Invention.
1T is not for me to say replied
Uncle Joe, when I asked him about the
Miller train control. Just see for your
self. Study it from every angle. and if
the thing is not 100 per cent to the good
tell the world so. And IL 1t Is all its in
ventors claim. then you owe double
duty to discover this invention to the
world-not only to the railroad world. but
to the world OF travellers. Go to itc
And this is exactly what did," adds
Mr.. Hubbard. Then he Interestingly pro-
ceeds: THE train control is now in use
on the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Rail.
road, on go miles of track. interviewed
the division engineer and the officials,
who expressed q perfect willingness to
give me the run of the roundhouse. and
allow me to go aboard an engine and go
out with the engineer. and see the work
ings of this safety device.
THE engineer j rode with was Eber-
hardt, running No. lois. big Pacific
on the Florida Special. from Danville to
Chicago.
When it was first suggested that this
device be put on my engine. I protested
explained Eberhardt to me. I had never
had an accident, and never expected to
have. Our road is equipped with the au-
tomato block system. know the rules.
! see the signals. am always sober.
never take train out unless am feel
ing just right, and I do not believe I
have ever run by a signal And said
that this machine that they are going TO
put on my engine will give me extra
work. will have TO watch not only Il
but the signals. 1t Is an assumption that
I am not on to my job. II r. third
man on the engine Watching me. How