MECHANICS AND USEFUL AETS. 47 



corporations in the world. This road is also doing a greater amount of busi- 

 ness hi freight than any other road of the same length ever constructed. "We 

 were especially invited," says the Tribune, "to present this statement from 

 learning this fact, that the officials on this extended road are able to tell, at 

 every moment of every day, where every locomotive and every car was upon 

 the road, and whether they were in service, or in ordinary, or at the repair- 

 shops, or whether if moving, who was moving them, and which way, and 

 whether they were loaded or empty. It did seem to us a sort of knowledge 

 that must require a little spiritual agency, but we found it only required the 

 agency of rules and discipline, and perfect order of business, aided by the 

 telegraph. There are near 3,000 cars, and over 200 locomotives now in use 

 on the road. These are all regularly numbered, and by those numbers en- 

 tered upon a book on the left side of a page, which is headed with the dates, 

 one, two, three, four, etc., of all the days in a month. Then all the stations are 

 numbered and known by the numbers. Now, suppose we want to find or 

 follow the progress of car No. 2,167. from station No. 1, which is Piermont, 

 through to Dunkirk, which is No. 74. Suppose the agent at Dunkirk writes 

 to inquire why certain freight has not been forwarded. The agent here re- 

 plies it has been : it was loaded, Sept. 7, at Piermont, in car No. 2,167. Then 

 where is that car? A glance at the book shows. Opposite No. 2,167, under 

 date Sept. 7, we find the figure 1. That shows that this particular car was 

 there that day. It must have left in the evening, because we find no other 

 number under that date ; but on the 8th we find by the numbers entered that 

 it was at half a dozen other stations. We follow up the numbers till we find, 

 on the 9th, it was at No. 34, which stands for Susquehanna, and there stands 

 car No. 2,167. "What is it doing there ? We refer to telegraph reports of 

 that day, and find that John Smith, conductor of train No. , ' arrived at 

 this station this morning, and the examiner found the axle of forward trucks 

 of car No. 2,167 defective and very dangerous. Switched out for repair.' 



"That is all right, but why has it not been switched in again ? 



"Click, click, click, goes the telegraph, and back comes the answer: 'Car 

 No. 2,167 repaired same day, and Peter Stokes ordered to put it in night train 

 west. Keports that he understood east, and sent it that way an hour since.' 

 Click, click, click, again, and car No. 2,167 goes about face at the next sta- 

 tion, and Peter Stokes is ordered up to the superintendent's office, and then, 

 on satisfactory proof that the order was correctly given and wrongfully exe- 

 cuted, he is discharged. So every car can be closely tracked, and every act 

 of carelessness ascertained and corrected on the instant. Every car is not 

 separately reported at each station, but every train is ; and in another book 

 there is a record of every train started, with every car and contents in the 

 train ; and what locomotive, and who is the conductor and engineer ; and 

 how much each car weighs, and how much weight it is loaded with ; and 

 how fast it runs, and how much it costs per ton per mile to draw the load ; 

 and if any cars are added on the road it is known when and where ; and if 

 any are left, when, and where, and why. If any one leaves loaded cars where 

 he should not, he will be likely to be left off of the pay-roll, and if he don't 

 take on and haul cars when ordered, he will be hauled up at the next station 



