RAILWAY SIGNALS
INVENTED BY POLICEMAN. Railway signals were the invention of a railway policeman. At one time the police had to stand at point duty, directing traffic by hand. One who found the job very monotonous invented a crossed stick arrangement controlled by a string. When he pulled the string the crossed sticks fell to a horizontal position, which was an intimation that the engine driver might proceed. The idea caught on and led to the establishment of the present signalling arrangements. The idea of printed tickets came from the resourceful brain of an overworked booking clerk (says a writer in Conquest). Like hundreds of his colleagues, he sat all day at the head of a long queue of intending passengers, each of whom spelled out his name, address, -and destination, to be written on a slip of paper. Such a waste of time and energy disgusted him, and one day he took to pieces an old boot repairing machine, making from it a primitive ticket printing apparatus, which was patented and let out to various railway companies on a commission basis. " •
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Bibliographic details
Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1666, 24 September 1925, Page 3
Word Count
182RAILWAY SIGNALS Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1666, 24 September 1925, Page 3
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