The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-09-20
Scientist Has Made Life
Study of How to Remedy
Certain Defects
HAS HAD THE AID
OF GOVERNMENT
Believes Installation of Bloom Heat
ing Plants by Manufacturers
Will Free Rails From
Interior Defects
BY HOLLAND


his seventy-third year. DR.. Plimmon H.
Dudley has rounded out an extraordinary
career which has been of inestimable
service to American railroads by an
nouncing that he has, he believes, found
the key to the mystery which has made
steel rails the cause of much concern
for many years to American railroad
managers. The steel rail was first
brought to the United States by the man
early sixties. 10-mile stretch west of
Pittsburg was equipped with this rail,
which was of English manufacture. The
men of science employed by the Penn
sylyania company suggested certain
notifications or improvements. One of
these made the rail practically continu-
Gus, the joint between the two rails being
almost imperceptible
About the time when the great railroad
expansion in the United States began
coincident with the resumption of specie
payments by the government, railway
managers and economic students said
that the steel rail and the Westinghouse
air brake had made possible the open
ing up of the west to great agricultural
development. No one in authority has
ever disputed this statement. 1t was
made at a time when DR.. Dudley was
beginning this study of American rail-
road equipment, particularly rails and
switches. Early, by means of delicate
and curious apparatus which he invented
and of which he made constant use In
travelling over the lines of the Wander
bilt system, he was able to discover I'M
projections in rails and roadbeds and to
that he had discovered that the cause of
decay in wood was due to a fungous
growth which could be remedied by an
application of creosote.
All of the improvements perfected by
Dr. Dudley, valuable as they were, were
far from satisfactory to him because
there was the constant and very puzzling
mystery behind which lay the cause for
the breaking of what appeared to be
sound steel rails. DR.. Dudley made
study of the rail and of the conditions
which produced this interior and con-
cealed effect for. years.
DIR. Dudley had abundant encourage
ment not only from the managers of
the Vanderbilt system, by whom he was
employed as its leading man of science,
but also by the government for carrying
or this work. 1t was of nationwide inn
portance. Accurate records in the pos
sessions of the interstate commerce COM
mission showed that there were in 10
years some 5000 accidents upon American
railroads due to this then understandable
cause. The mortality was appalling, for
in IA years a little over 200 persons were
killed by accidents of this kind and about
1000 injured. The property loss occasioned
was somewhat in excess of 100000.
THE FLAWLESS RAIL
Mr. Dudley could be found many times
in the course of the year at the great
manufactures where steel rails ara
made. No skilled artisan possessed
higher qualifications for the manufac-
ture of steel rails than did DR.. Dudley.
He recommended an infusion of certain
minerals into steel and it was found that
this strengthened the rail- 1t was he
who first recommended the placing upon
the ties of railroads which operated
heavy trains steels rails of 100 pounds
to the yard.
DR.. Dudley is as conspicuous an exam
pie of conscientious devotion to a sub
ject as are any of the great men OF
science of the world. His mind has been
concentrated upon the proposition. How
can a steel Tall 50 NC GU tho~
it shall not give concern to railroad man
ayers nor any anxiety to passengers?
Whenever an accident took place which
was caused by a broken rail. DR.. Dudley
secured fragments of the rail and sub
jected them to minute. sometimes micro
scopic inspection. His workshop in the
new Grand Central terminal is a veritable
museum containing specimens OF rails
which were supposed to be good, but
~; I,1rlx inc dnfaNf
last broke and caused accident, some OF
them involving loss of life.
Some wears ago. when showing a specl-
men of broken rail to a friend who Wis
tied him in his offices, DIR. Dudley SAID
that he was convinced that he was on
the right road, the end of which would be
the place from which 1T could be an
ncunced that the steel rail was no longer
a menace, He had become satisfied that
while the repeated blows of the driving
wheels of the locomotives undoubtedly at
last weakened the rail on account OF TINS
internal defect nevertheless were the rail
perfectly sound the effect of the driving
wheels of the locomotive upon 1t would
not be injurious. Therefore, he was per-
suaded that the fault lay somewhere In
the manufacture of the steel rail. Fnere
were days and weeks when Or. Dudley
gave his entire time TO the eohsiueioeioi
of this subject
At last his experiments and long con-
tinued tests convinced him that II manu-
facturers of steel rails will install bloom
heating plants they can in this way make
rails which will be free from any IN
terror defect The high professional ana
scientific qualifications OF DR.. Dudiey
his world wide reputation, for he is an
authority with the railroad managers or
Europe. will convince managers all over
the world that he has. as he asserts, dis
covered how hereafter to prevent interior
fissures in the making of steel rails This
Is not mere theory, because the man
ayers of the Vanderbilt system who have
laid down rails made according to the
specifications of DIR. Dudley now report
that whereas in the past one rail In ooo
broke now there is only one In nearly
10000.
Two Men Hurt
]. j. ximbrough and his son, Isaac