THE AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEER. 159
CHAPTER XVII.
THE AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC BLOCK SYSTEM.
A REALIZING sense of the necessity of ultimately adopting some
system of protection against the danger of rear-end collisions
was, above all else, brought directly home to American railroad
managers through the Revere disaster. In discussing and comparing
the appliances used in the practical operation of railroads in
different countries, there is one element, however, which can
never be left out of the account. The intelligence, quickness
of perception and capacity for taking care of themselvesthat
combination of qualities which, taken together, constitute individuality
and adaptability to circumstancevary greatly among the railroad
employees of different countries. The American locomotive engineer,
as he is called, is especially gifted in this way. He can be relied
on to take care of himself and his train under circumstances which
in other countries would be thought to insure disaster.
160 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
Volumes on this point were included in the fact that though
at the time of the Revere disaster many of the American lines,
especially in Massachusetts, were crowded with the trains of a
mixed traffic, the necessity of making any provision against rear-end
collisions, further than by directing those in immediate charge
of the trains to keep a sharp look out and to obey their printed
orders, seemed hardly to have occurred to any one. The English
block system was now and then referred to in a vague, general
way; but it was very questionable whether one in ten of those
referring to it knew anything about it or had ever seen it in
operation, much less investigated it. A characteristic illustration
of this was afforded in the course of those official investigations
which followed the Revere disaster, and have already more than
once been alluded to. Prior to that disaster the railroads of
Massachusetts had, as a rule, enjoyed a rather exceptional freedom
from accidents, and there was every reason to suppose that their
regulations were as exact and their system as good as those in
use in other parts of the country. Yet it then appeared that in
the rules of very few of the Massachusetts roads had any provision,
even of the simplest character, been made as to the effect of
telegraphic orders, or the course to be pursued by employees in
charge of trains on their receipt. The appliances for securing
intervals between following trains were marked by a quaint simplicity.
They were, indeed,
A NECESSITY OF THE FUTURE. 161
"singularly primitive," as the railroad commissioners
on a subsequent occasion described them, when it appeared that
on one of the principal roads of the state the interval between
two closely following trains was signalled to the engineer of
the second train by a station-master's holding up to him as he
passed a number of fingers corresponding to the number of minutes
since the first train had gone by. For the rest the examination
revealed, as the nearest approach to a block system, a queer collection
of dials, sand-glasses, green flags, colored lanterns and hand-targets.
The climax in the course of that investigation was, however, reached
when some reference, involving a description of it, was made to
the English block. This was met by a protest on the part of one
veteran superintendent, who announced that it might work well
under certain circumstances, but for himself he could not be responsible
for the operation of a road running the number of trains he had
charge of in reliance on any such system. The subject, in fact,
was one of which he knew absolutely nothing; not even that, through
the block system and through it alone, fourteen trains were habitually
and safely moved under circumstances where he moved one. This
occurred in 1871, and though eight years have since elapsed information
in regard to the block system is not yet very widely disseminated
inside of railroad circles, much less outside of them. It is none
the less a necessity of the
162 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
future. It has got to be understood, and, in some form, it
has got to be adopted; for even in America there are limits to
the reliance which, when the lives and limbs of many are at stake,
can be placed on the "sharp look out" of any class of
men, no matter how intelligent they may be.
The block system is of English origin, and it scarcely needs
to be said that it was adopted by the railroad corporations of
that country only when they were driven to it by the exigencies
of their traffic. But for that system, indeed, the most costly
portion of the tracks of the English roads must of necessity have
been duplicated years ago, as their traffic had fairly outgrown
those appliances of safety which have even to this time been found
sufficient in America. There were points, for instance, where
two hundred and seventy regular trains of one line alone passed
daily. On the London & North Western there are more than sixty
through down trains, taking no account of local trains, each day
passing over the same line of tracks, among which are express
trains which stop nowhere, way trains which stop everywhere, express-freight,
way-freight, mineral trains and parcel trains. On the Midland
road there are nearly twice as many similar trains on each track.
On the Metropolitan railway the average interval is three and
one-third minutes between trains. In one case points were mentioned
where 270 regular trains of one line alone passed a given junction
during each twenty-four hours,where 470 trains
LONDON TRAIN-MOVEMENT. 163
passed a single station, the regular interval between them
being but five-eighths of a mile,where 132 trains entered
and left a single station during three hours of each evening every
day, being one train in eighty-two seconds. In 1870 there daily
reached or left the six stations of the Boston roads some 385
trains; while no less than 650 trains a day were in the same year
received and despatched from a single one of the London stations.
On one single exceptional occasion 1,111 trains, carrying 145,000
persons, were reported as entering and leaving this station in
the space of eighteen hours, being rather more than a train a
minute. Indeed it may well be questioned whether the world anywhere
else furnishes an illustration so apt and dramatic of the great
mechanical achievements of recent times as that to be seen during
the busy hours of any week-day from the signal and interlocking
galleries which span the tracks as they enter the Charing Cross
or Cannon street stations in London. Below and in front of the
galleries the trains glide to and fro, coming suddenly into sight
from beyond the bridges and as suddenly disappearing,winding
swiftly in and out, and at times four of them running side by
side on as many tracks but in both directions,the whole
making up a swiftly shifting maze of complex movement under the
influence of which a head unaccustomed to the sight grows actually
giddy. Yet it is all done so quietly and smoothly, with such an
absence of haste and nervousness on the part of the
164 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
stolid operators in charge, that it is not easy to decide which
most to wonder at, the almost inconceivable magnitude and despatch
of the train-movement or the perfection of the appliances which
make it possible. No man concerned in the larger management of
railroads, who has not passed a morning in those London galleries,
knows what it is to handle a great city's traffic.
Perfect as it is in its way, however, it may well be questioned
whether the block system as developed in England is likely to
be generally adopted on American railroads. Upon one or two of
them, and notably on the New Jersey Central and a division of
the Pennsylvania, it has already been in use for a number of years.
From an American point of view, however, it is open to a number
of objections. That in itself it is very perfect and has been
successfully elaborated so as to provide for almost every possible
contingency is proved by the results daily accomplished by means
of it.* The English lines are made to do an, incredible amount
of work with comparative few accidents. The block system is, however,
none the less a very clumsy and complicated one, necessitating
the constant employment of a large number of skilled operators.
Here is the great defect in it from the American point of view.
In this country labor is scarce and capital costly. The effort
is always towards the perfecting of
* An excellent popular description of this
system will be found in Barry's Railway Appliances, Chapter
V.
THE AMERICAN BLOCK. 165
labor-saving machines. Hitherto the pressure of traffic on
the lines has not been greater than could be fairly controlled
by simpler appliances, and the expense of the English system is
so heavy that its adoption, except partially, would not have been
warranted. As Barry says in his treatise on the subject, "one
can 'buy gold too dear'; for if every possible known precaution
is to be taken, regardless of cost, it may not pay to work a railway
at all."
It is tolerably safe, therefore, to predict that the American
block system of the future will be essentially different from
the present English system. The basiselectricitywill
of course be the same; but, while the operator is everywhere in
the English block, his place will be supplied to the utmost possible
degree by automatic action in the American. It is in this direction
that the whole movement since the Revere disaster has been going
on, and the advance has been very great. From peculiarities of
condition also the American block must be made to cover a multitude
of weak points in the operation of roads, and give timely notice
of dangers against which the English block provides only to a
limited degree, and always through the presence of yet other employees.
For instance, as will presently be seen, many more accidents and,
in Europe even, far greater loss of life is caused by locomotives
coming in contact with vehicles at points where highways cross
railroad tracks at a level therewith than by rear-end collisions;
meanwhile throughout
166 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
America, even in the most crowded suburban neighborhoods, these
crossings are the rule, whereas in Europe they are the exception.
The English block affords protection against this danger by giving
electric notice to gatemen; but gatemen are always supposed. So
also as respects the movements of passengers in and about stations
in crossing tracks as they come to or leave the trains, or prepare
to take their places in them. The rule in Europe is that passenger
crossings at local stations are provided over or under the tracks;
in America, however, almost nowhere is any provision at all made,
but passengers, men, women and children, are left to scramble
across tracks as best they can in the face of passing trains.
They are expected to take care of themselves, and the success
with which they do it is most astonishing. Having been brought
up to this self-care all their lives, they do not, as would naturally
be supposed, become confused and stumble under the wheels of locomotives;
and the statistics seem to show that no more accidents from this
cause occur in America than in Europe. Nevertheless some provision
is manifestly desirable to notify employees as well as passengers
that trains are approaching, especially where way-stations are
situated on curves.
Again, it is well known that, next to collisions, the greatest
source of danger to railroad trains is due to broken tracks. It
is, of course, apparent that tracks may at any time be broken
by accident, as by
IS AUTOMATIC ACTION REL1ABLE? 167
earth-slides, derailment or the fracture of rails. This danger
has to be otherwise provided for; the block has nothing to do
with it further than to prevent a train delayed by any such break
from being run into by any following train. The broken track which
the perfect block should give notice of is that where the break
is a necessary incident to the regular operation of the road.
It is these breaks which, both in America and elsewhere, are the
fruitful source of the great majority of railroad accidents, and
draw-bridges and switches, or facing points as they are termed
in the English reports, are most prominent among them. Wherever
there is a switch, the chances are that in the course of time
there will be an accident.
Four matters connected with train movement have now been specified,
in regard to which some provision is either necessary or highly
desirable: these are rear collisions, tracks broken at draw-bridges
or at switches, highway grade crossings, and the notification
of agents and passengers at stations. The effort in America, somewhat
in advance of that crowded condition of the lines which makes
the adoption of something a measure of present necessity, has
been directed towards the invention of an automatic system which
at one and the same time should cover all the dangers and provide
for all the needs which have been referred to, eliminating the
risks incident to human forgetfulness, drowsiness and weakness
of nerves. Can reliable automatic provision thus be made ?The
English
168 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
authorities are of opinion that it cannot. They insist that
"if automatic arrangements be adopted, however suitable they
may be to the duties which they have to perform, they should in
all cases be used as additions to, and not as substitutions for,
safety machinery worked by competent signal-men. The signal-man
should be bound to exercise his observation, care and judgment,
and to act thereon; and the machine, as far as possible, be such
that if he attempts to go wrong it shall check him."
It certainly cannot be said that the American electrician has
as yet demonstrated the incorrectness of this conclusion, but
he has undoubtedly made a good deal of progress in that direction.
Of the various automatic blocks which have now been experimented
with or brought into practice, the Hall Electric and the Union
Safety Signal Company systems have been developed to a very marked
degree of perfection. They depend for their working on diametrically
opposite principles: the Hall signals being worked by means of
an electric circuit caused by the action of wheels moving on the
rails, and conveyed through the usual medium of wires; while,
under the other system, the wires being wholly dispensed with,
a continuous electric circuit is kept up by means of the rails,
which are connected for the purpose, and the signals are then
acted upon through the breaking of this normal circuit by the
movement of locomotives and cars. So far as the signals are concerned,
there is
HALL'S ELECTRIC SYSTEM. 169
no essential difference between the two systems, except that
Hall supplies the necessary motive force by the direct action
of electricity, while in the other case dependence is placed upon
suspended weights. Of the two the Hall system is the oldest and
most thoroughly elaborated, having been compelled to pass through
that long and useful tentative process common to all inventions,
during which they are regarded as of doubtful utility and are
gradually developed through a succession of partial failures.
So far as Hall's system is concerned this period may now fairly
be regarded as over, for it is in established use on a number
of the more crowded roads of the North, and especially of New
England, while the imperfections necessarily incident to the development
of an appliance at once so delicate and so complicated, have for
certain purposes been clearly overcome. Its signal arrangements,
for instance, to protect draw-bridges, stations and grade-crossings
are wholly distinct from its block system, through which it provides
against dangers from collision and broken tracks. So far as draw-bridges
are concerned, the protection it affords is perfect. Not only
is its interlocking apparatus so designed that the opening of
the draw blocks all approach to it, but the signals are also reciprocal;
and if through carelessness or automatic derangement any train
passes the block, the draw-tender is notified at once of the fact
in ample time to stop it.
170 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
In the case of a highway crossing at a level, the electric
bell under Hall's system is placed at the crossing, giving notice
of the approaching train from the moment it is within half a mile
until it passes; so that, where this appliance is in use, accidents
can happen only through the gross carelessness of those using
the highway. When the electric bell is silent there is no train
within half a mile and the crossing is safe; it is not safe while
the bell is ringing. As it now stands the law usually provides
that the prescribed signals, either bell or whistle, shall be
given from the locomotive as it approaches the highway, and at
a fixed distance from it. The signal, therefore, is given at a
distance of several hundred yards, more or less, from the point
of danger. The electric system improves on this by placing the
signal directly at the point of danger,the traveller approaches
the bell, instead of the bell approaching the traveller. At any
point of crossing which is really dangerous, that is at any crossing
where trees or cuttings or buildings mask the railroad from the
highway, this distinction is vital. In the one case notice of
the unseen danger must be given and cannot be unobserved; in the
other case whether it is really given or not may depend on the
condition of the atmosphere or the direction of the wind.
Usually, however, in New England the level crossings of the
more crowded thoroughfares, perhaps one in ten of the whole number,
are protected
HIGHWAY-CROSSING SIGNALS. 171
by gates or flag-men. Under similar circumstances in Great
Britain there is an electric connection between a bell in the
cabin of the gate-keeper and the nearest signal boxes of the block
system on each side of the crossing, so that due notice is given
of the approach of trains from either direction. In this country
it has heretofore been the custom to warn gatekeepers by the locomotive
whistle, to the intense annoyance of all persons dwelling near
the crossing, or to make them depend for notice on their own eyes.
Under the Hall system, however, the gate-keeper is automatically
signalled to be on the look out, if he is attending to his duty;
or, if he is neglecting it, the electric bell in some degree supplies
his place, without releasing the corporation from its liability.
In America the heavy fogs of England are almost unknown, and the
brilliant head lights, heavy bells and shrill high whistles in
use on the locomotives would at night, it might be supposed, give
ample notice to the most careless of an approaching train. Continually
recurring experience shows, however, that this is not the case.
Under these circumstances the electric bell at the crossing becomes
not only a matter of justice almost to the employee who is stationed
there, but a watchman over him.
This, however, like the other forms of signals which have been
referred to, is, in the electric system, a mere adjunct of its
chief use, which is the block,they are all as it were things
thrown into
172 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
the bargain. As contradistinguished from the English block,
which insures only an unoccupied track, the automatic blocks seek
to insure an unbroken track as well,that is not only is
each segment into which a road is divided, protected as respects
following trains by, in the case of Hall's system, double signals
watching over each other, the one at safety, the other at danger,both
having to combine to open the block,but every switch or
facing point, the throwing of which may break the main track,
is also protected. The Union Signal Company's system it is claimed
goes still further than this and indicates any break in the track,
though due to accidental fracture or displacement of rails. Without
attempting this the Hall system has one other important feature
in common with the English block, and a very important feature,
that of enabling station agents in case of sudden emergency to
control the train movement within half a mile or more of their
stations on either side. Within the given distance they can stop
trains either leaving or approaching. The inability to do this
has been the cause of some of the most disastrous collisions on
record, and notably those at Revere and at Thorpe.
The one essential thing, however, in every perfect block system,
whether automatic or worked by operators, is that in case of accident
or derangement or doubt, the signal should rest at danger. This
the Hall system now fully provides for, and in case even
THE COST OF A SMALL ECONOMY. 173
of the willful displacement of a switch, an occurrence by no
means without precedent in railroad experience, the danger signal
could not but be displayed, even though the electric connection
had been tampered with. Accidents due to willfullness, however,
can hardly be provided for except by police precautions. Train
wrecking is not to be taken into account as a danger incident
to the ordinary operation of a railroad. Carelessness or momentary
inadvertence, or, most dangerous of all, that recklessnessthat
unnecessary assumption of risk somewhere or at some time, which
is almost inseparable from a long immunity from disaster-these
are the great sources of peril most carefully to be guarded against.
The complicated and unceasing train movement depends upon many
thousand employees, all of whom make mistakes or assume risks
sometimes;and did they not do so they would be either more
or less than men. Being, however, neither angels nor machines,
but ordinary mortals whose services are bought for money at the
average market rate of wages, it would certainly seem no small
point gained if an automatic machine could be placed on guard
over those whom it is the great effort of railroad discipline
to reduce to automatons. Could this result be attained, the unintentional
throwing of a lever or the carelessness which leaves it thrown,
would simply block the track instead of leaving it broken. An
example of this, and at the same time a most forcible illustration
of the possible
174 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
cost of a small economy in the application of a safeguard,
was furnished in the case of the Wollaston disaster. At the time
of that disaster, the Old Colony railroad had for several years
been partially equipped on the portion of its track near Boston,
upon which the accident occurred, with Hall's system. It had worked
smoothly and easily, was we'll understood by the employees, and
the company was sufficiently satisfied with it to have even then
made arrangements for its extension. Unfortunately, with a too
careful eye to the expenditure involved, the line had been but
partially equipped; points where little danger was apprehended
had not been protected. Among these was the "Foundry switch,"
so called, near Wollaston. Had this switch been connected with
the system and covered by a signal-target, the mere act of throwing
it would have automatically blocked the track, and only when it
was re-set would the track have been opened. The switch was not
connected, the train hands were recklessly careless, and so a
trifling economy cost in one unguarded moment some fifty persons
life and limb, and the corporation more than $300,000.
One objection to the automatic block is generally based upon
the delicacy and complicated character of the machinery on which
its action necessarily depends; and this objection is especially
urged against those other portions of the Hall system, covering
draws and level crossings, which have been particularly described.
It is argued that
"PRETTY A ND INGENIOUS; BUT" 175
it is always liable to get out of order from a great multiplicity
of causes, some of which are very difficult to guard against,
and that it is sure to get out of order during any electric disturbance;
but it is during storms that accidents are most likely to occur,
and especially is this the case at highway grade-crossings. It
is comparatively easy to avoid accidents so long as the skies
are clear and the elements quiet; but it is exactly when this
is not the case and when it becomes necessary to use every precaution,
that electricity as a safeguard fails or runs mad, and, by participating
in the general confusion, proves itself worse than nothing. Then
it will be found that those in charge of trains and tracks, who
have been educated into a reliance upon it under ordinary circumstances,
will from force of habit, if nothing else, go on relying upon
it, and disaster will surely follow.
This line of reasoning is plausible, but none the less open
to one serious objection; it is sustained neither by statistics
nor by practical experience. Moreover it is not new, for, slightly
varied in phraseology, it has been persistently urged against
the introduction of every new railroad appliance, and, indeed,
was first and most persistently of all urged against the introduction
of railroads themselves. Pretty and ingenious in theory, practically
it is not feasible!for more than half a century this formula
has been heard. That the automatic electric signal system is complicated,
and in many of its
176 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
parts of most delicate construction, is undeniable. So also
is the locomotive. In point of fact the whole railroad organization
from beginning to endfrom machine-shop to train-movementis
at once so vast and complicated, so delicate in that action which
goes on with such velocity and power, that it is small cause for
wonder that in the beginning all plain, sensible, practical men
scouted it as the fanciful creation of visionaries. They were
wholly justified in so doing; and to-day any sane man would of
course pronounce the combined safety and rapidity of ordinary
railroad movement an utter impossibility, did he not see it going
on before his eyes. So it is with each new appliance. It is ever
suggested that at last the final result has already been reached.
It is but a few years, as will presently be seen, since the Westinghouse
brake encountered the old "pretty and ingenious" formula.
Going yet a step further, and taking the case of electricity itself,
the bold conception of operating an entire line of single track
road wholly as respects one half of its train movement by telegraph,
and without the use of any time table at all, would once have
been condemned as mad. Yet to-day half of the vast freight movement
of this continent is carried on in absolute reliance on the telegraph.
Nevertheless it is still not uncommon to hear among the class
of men who rise to the height of their capacity in themselves
being automaton superintendents that they do not believe in deviating
EXPERIENCE vs. THEORY. 177
from their time tables and printed rules; that, acting under
them, the men know or ought to know exactly what to do, and any
interference by a train despatcher only relieves them of responsibility,
and is more likely to lead to accidents than if they were left
alone to grope their own way out.
Another and very similar argument frequently urged against
the electric, in common with all other block systems by the large
class who prefer to exercise their ingenuity in finding objections
rather than in overcoming difficulties, is that they breed dependence
and carelessness in employees ;that engine-drivers accustomed
to rely on the signals, rely on them implicitly, and get into
habits of recklessness which lead inevitably to accidents, for
which they then contend the signals, and not they themselves,
are responsible. This argument is, indeed, hardly less familiar
than the "pretty and ingenious" formula just referred
to. It has, however, been met and disposed of by Captain Tyler
in his annual reports to the Board of Trade in a way which can
hardly be improved upon:
It is a favorite argument with those who
oppose the introduction of some of these improvements, or who
make excuses for the want of them, that their servants are apt
to become more careless from the use of them, in consequence of
the extra security which they are believed to afford; and it is
desirable to consider seriously how much of truth there is in
this assertion. * * * Allowing to the utmost for these tendencies
to confide
178 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
too much in additional means of safety,
the risk is proved by experience to be very much greater without
them than with them; and, in fact, the negligence and mistakes
of servants are found to occur most frequently, and generally
with the most serious results, not when the men are over-confident
in their appliances or apparatus, but when, in the absence of
them, they are habituated to risk in the conduct of the traffic.
In the daily practice of railway working station-masters, porters,
signalmen, engine-drivers or guards are frequently placed in difficulties
which they have to surmount as best they can. The more they are
accustomed to incur risk in order to perform their duties, the
less they think of it, and the more difficult it is to enforce
discipline and obedience to regulations. The personal risk which
is encountered by certain classes of railway servants is coming
to be more precisely ascertained. It is very considerable; and
it is difficult to prevent men who are in constant danger themselves
from doing things which may be a source of danger to others, or
to compel them to obey regulations for which they do not see altogether
the necessity, and which impede them in their work. This difficulty
increases with the want of necessary means and appliances; and
is diminished when, with proper means and appliances, stricter
discipline becomes possible, safer modes of working become habitual,
and a higher margin of safety is constantly preserved.*
In Great Britain the ingenious theory that superior appliances
or greater personal comfort in some indefinable way lead to carelessness
in employees was carried to such an extent that only within the
last few years has any protection against wind, rain and sunshine
been furnished on locomotives for the engine-drivers and stokers.
The old stage-coach
* Reports; 1872, page 23, and 1873, page 39.
DUTY UNDER TORTURE. 179
driver faced the elements, and why should not his successor
on the locomotive do the same?If made too comfortable, he
would become careless and go to sleep!This was the line
of argument advanced, and the tortures to which the wretched men
were subjected in consequence of it led to their fortifying nature
by drink. They had to be regularly inspected and examined before
mounting the footboard, to see that they were sober. It took years
in Great Britain for intelligent railroad managers to learn that
the more protected and comfortable a man is the better he will
attend to his duty. And even when the old argument, refuted by
long experience, was at last abandoned as respected the locomotive
cab, it, with perfect freshness and confidence in its own novelty
and force, promptly showed its brutal visage in opposition to
the next new safeguard.
For the reasons which Captain Tyler has so forcibly put in
the extracts which have just been quoted, the argument against
the block system from the increased carelessness of employees,
supposed to be induced by it, is entitled to no weight. Neither
is the argument from the delicacy and complication of the automatic,
electric signal system entitled to any more, when urged against
that. Not only has it been too often refuted under similar conditions
by practical results, but in this case it is based on certain
assumptions of fact which are wholly opposed to experience. The
record does not show that there is any
180 RAILROAD ACCIDENTS.
peculiar liability to railroad accidents during periods of
storm; perhaps because those in charge of train movements or persons
crossing tracks are under such circumstances more especially on
the look out for danger. On the contrary the full average of accidents
of the worst description appear to have occurred under the most
ordinary conditions of weather, and usually in the most unanticipated
way. This is peculiarly true of accidents at highway grade crossings.
These commonly occur when the conditions are such as to cause
the highway travelers to suppose that, if any danger existed,
they could not but be aware of it. In the next place, the question
in regard to automatic electric signals is exactly what it was
in regard to the Westinghouse brake, with its
air-pump, its valves and connecting tubes;it is the purely
practical question,Does the thing work?The burden
of proof is properly on the inventor. The presumption is all against
him. In the case of the electric signals they have for years been
in limited but constant use, and while thus in use they have been
undergoing steady improvement. Though now brought to a considerable
degree of comparative perfection they are, of course, still in
their earlier stage of development. In use, however, they have
not been found open to the practical objections urged against
them. At first much too complicated and expensive, requiring more
machinery than could by any reasonable exertions be kept
DOES THE THING WORK? 181
in order and more care than they were worth, they have now
been simplified until a single battery properly located can do
all the necessary work for a road of indefinite length. As a system
they are effective and do not lead to accidents; nor are they
any more subject than telegraph wires to derangement from atmospheric
causes. When any disturbance does take place, until it can be
overcome it amounts simply to a general signal for operating the
road with extreme caution. But with railroads, as everywhere else
in life, it is the normal condition of affairs for which provision
must be made, while the dangers incident to exceptional circumstances
must be met by exceptional precautions. As long as things are
in their normal state, that is, probably, during nineteen days
out of twenty, the electric signals have now through several years
of constant trial proved themselves a reliable safeguard. It can
hardly admit of doubt that in the near future they will be both
further perfected and generally adopted.
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