THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE 



devised and brought to practical perfection. For a 

 time a vacuum brake, which utilized atmospheric pres- 

 sure, offered keen rivalry. But eventually the type of 

 brake perfected by Mr. Westinghouse, modified in cer- 

 tain details in the various countries of Europe and 

 America, gained precedence, which it still retains. 



AUTOMATIC COUPLINGS 



The perfection of the air brake removed one great 

 source of danger that menaced the crews of freight 

 trains. There still remained another almost as great, 

 particularly in the matter of maiming its victims, when 

 not actually killing them. This was the old method of 

 coupling freight cars as practiced in America. There 

 were few old-time trainmen, indeed, who could show 

 a complete set of full length digits, the buffers of the 

 old-fashioned couplings being responsible for the lost 

 and shortened members. 



The freight brakeman has to make scores of coup- 

 lings on every trip. And he literally took his life in 

 his hands upon each and every occasion of making a 

 coupling by the old method. 



This old form of couplings consisted of two buffers 

 — one on each car — ^joined together by an iron link 

 about fifteen inches long, a movable pin inserted at 

 either end holding the link in place and thus joining 

 the cars. When a coupling was to be made the brake- 

 man raised the pin in the buffer of the stationary car 

 and tilted it at an angle in the pin-hole at the top of 

 the buffer so that, while it remained raised, the jar of 



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