Miscellaneous Papers. 861 



to foreclose their mortgage and buy the property at sheriff's sale at 

 a nominal price, and then reorganize the company. 



Then the dividends should be limited to three or four per cent, 

 and the surplus revenue used to better the physical condition of the 

 road in order to protfect life and facilitate the handling of traflSc. 



In the year 1905, as a direct result of the movement of trains, 

 locomotives or cars, 533 passengers were killed and 10,245 injured, 

 341 of whom were killed and 6053 injured in collisions and derail- 

 ments. 



In order to reduce the number of collisions, some of the railways 

 have adopted the block-signal system. This is operated in two 

 ways; the one under what is known as the manual, and the other 

 as the automatic. The manual depends upon telegraph operators 

 for its successful operation. It was under this system, which is in 

 use on the Southern railway, that Mr. Samuel Spencer, the president, 

 lost his life in a rear-end collision on November 29, 1906. Upon 

 investigation it was discovered that an operator had admitted the 

 second train to the block before the president's train had passed 

 out. It also developed that it was a common practice on the eastern 

 roads to run two trains in a block at the same time. The officials 

 claimed that it was necessary to do this in order to handle the traffic. 



The automatic system is operated by dividing the track into 

 sections called "blocks." The rails in a block are joined by wires 

 reaching around the splices so as to give a continuous conductor 

 for its full length. The rails at the junction of the two blocks are 

 insulated. Then by an ingenious arrangement of batteries, relays, 

 motors, etc., the semaphore boards are controlled so that when 

 there is no train in the block the current flows through the rails 

 and holds the semaphore at "safety," but as soon as a train enters 

 the block it short-circuits the current by giving a connection be- 

 tween the two rails through the wheels and axles, and the sema- 

 phore then goes up to the danger position by the force of gravity. 

 However, there is nothing in this to prevent a second train from 

 passing on into the block excepting orders, which are given to the 

 engineer by the dispatcher. 



There is no reason why the automatic system should not be 

 operated in such a way that it would bring the second train to a 

 full stop in case it attempted to enter the block before the sema- 

 phore dropped to the safety position. This could be easily accom- 

 plished by having a lever which would set the brakes, rise up out 

 of the ground high enough to strike an arm extending from the 

 side of the locomotive or car, and would bring the train to a si.. i id- 



