RAILWAY INVENTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14465, 6 March 1909, Page 12

RAILWAY INVENTION.

WESTINGIIOUSN BSAKK IMPROYF MRXI. (Fboii Oi'R Own Correspondent.) IXYKHCAKUILL, March 5. There was ■. -large and interested gathering of Inveivargill commercial ami financial men at the railway yards this afternoon, ivltcn the working and eonsti'iictioii of an invention to he known as "the electric safety indicator" wore explained iby Mr Waiter Henderson on behalf of the The invention is to be used in conjunction with tire Wostinghouse brake on railway trains a contrivance which has a world-wide reputation as a utility and safety anwemeiit depending for its working on air controlled from the locomotive to which the train is attache:.!. It has been found in the ordinary course of tisin" the Wcstmgliouse brake that accidents occur owing to mischievous or thoughtless people disarranging the cocks which control the air supply at the rear of each track, carnage, or van, whilo accidental contact, or even the forgetfulness of railway employees in coupling up, sometimes causes the bniK.o now in use to become ineffective, and there is at present no sure niuicauon by which sucfi a result can become known to the engine-driver. Thus, if a cock be disarranged a train may draw out, and when a sudden emergency arises the brakes refuse to act.

If the electric wifely indicator be fitted To a train, and a stop cock he interfered with or wrongly adjusted, it is claimed that it bell will immediately ring in the engine and continue to cio so until the fault be remedied, in addition to this a gla«-protected electric button is placed in eacli passenger car so that in the event of an alarm becoming necessary owing to a person falling oti a train or any other emergency the glass may bo broken and the button pressed, causing the engineer's bell to ring, and thus slopping the train. In the guard's -van is a neat telephone, with which lie can get into communication with the engine and state his withes to his driver at any time, and this convenience is also a subsidiary attachment of the indicator, A technical description of the invention would hardly appeal to the bulk of readers, but it may bo said that the mechanism is simple, strong, lasting, and cheap. It worked in a highly sue cessful manner to-day, and is to be further t< sled locally prior to being sent to Wellington, where it will be put to the severe test of service on lines in the vicinity of Wellington. The inventor of. this apparatus from which so much is hoped is a young native of Inverciirgiil, Mr Normanby Christie, who is railway Westingliuuse fitter in the local yards, lie has seen service in the navy, and was in a- gunboat in the Par East during recent disturbance?. He has been engaged oh his invention for the past 12 months, and appears to have now brought it to a state of perfection winch justifies confidence- in its future.