WIRELESS ON TRAINS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15504, 10 January 1914, Page 5 (Supplement)

WIRELESS ON TRAINS.

Experiments with wireless telegraphy on trains have been conducted for some | weeks on the Lackawanna railroad, and a few weeks ago the apparatus received its first practical test. The Lackawanna Limited, the only train in the world, it is said, to carry wireless, was running at fifty miles an hour thirty miles; east of Scranton, Pennsylvania, when a conductor of the train fell ill. In the ordinary way considerable delay would have been necessitated by a change of conductors, but in this case a wireless message was sent ahead to Scranton, and when the train arrived there an emergency man was waiting, and the disabled conductor was able to leave his post and consult a physician without a minute being lost. Wireless saved still another loss of time when word was sent ahead that the train was so crowded that another Pullman carriage was required. Mr. L. B. Foley Superintendent of Telegraphs, who was on board the Limited, was enthusiastic when he returned to New York, and predicted that the day was not far distant when, every train and railway system in the world would be equipped with wireless.

As a means of preventing accidents," said Mr. Foley, "I think wireless will prove of the greatest value. In the Underground at New York, for example, the train dispatcher sits in his room, and by the flashing of lights knows exactly where every train is. if two trains get dangerously close together, he can send a signal that, will almost instantly stop one or both of them. I believe that the fame thing can be done on the railroads with wireless. A desnatcher can sit in front of a board, on which the position of each train on the line is show by wireless telegraph If he sees trains getting too close together for safety, ho can send a wireless message that will stop one of them anywhereout in the countrv, miles from a telegraph station." _ Mr. Fole> declared that the experiments 'justified all his predictions. He has already proved that the rails can be used for ground-wires, and the train's ordinary lightning dynamos for the current. Many other doubtful points have been cleared up. The Limiicd's wireless apparatus is installed in the forward part of the train, and an aerial, consisting of four wire rectangles, supported by . stanchions • 2ft high, is placed 011 the top of each of the! carriages,