Popular Science Monthly 



599 



Safeguarding Open Drawbridges 

 by an Automatic Car-Stop 



BUMPER 

 -CONNECTING ROD 



time plunged 



DRAWBRIDGES 

 which have been 

 opened too quickly 

 have caused many 

 fatal accidents. Only 

 recently accidents 

 were caused in this 

 manner in Boston and 

 Chicago, where in each 

 case trolley cars that 

 could not be stopped 

 down into the water. Some type of safety 

 stop should be provided on every draw- 

 bridge. That it is perfectly feasible to 

 provide such stops is proved by the ac- 

 companying photograph which show*s the 

 type of stop now being used on a bridge 

 having an upgrade approach. It is the de- 

 sign of a Chicago engineer, J. B. Strauss. 



The Strauss safety-stop is placed at 

 the end of the approach to the bridge. 

 When not in, use, it lies flat on the bed of 

 the track. But just as soon as 

 the bridge is opened, an electric 

 motor is automatically started 

 which swings the front end 

 of the striking-frame around 

 on its pivot, until it is 

 raised about two feet 

 above the track. The 

 heavy pivoted end 

 of the heavy steel 

 s t r u c t u re of this 

 frame is held se- 

 curely down. A car 

 which strikes the 

 frame can get very 

 little nearer the edge 

 of the approach than 

 the front of it. In 

 all ordinary cases, the 

 collision will not be 

 severe and the bump 

 will certainly be pref- 

 erable to a plunge 

 into the river. 



A push of the thumb operates the hammer on 

 this Chinese typewriter and moves the spacer 



As soon as tne 

 bridge is opened 

 an electric motor 

 is automatically 

 started which 

 raises the bump- 

 er into position 



It Takes Four Thousand Characters 

 [to Typewrite in Chinese 



A MECHANICAL engineer of Shanghai, 

 China, has invented a Chinese type- 

 writer with a revolving cylinder about six 

 inches in diameter and sixteen inches in 

 length, on which four thousand of the multi- 

 tudinous Chinese characters are distributed 

 over an ordinary matrix. 



The "keyboard" consists of a flat table 

 surface upon which are duplicated 

 the type characters. To write 

 the letter "A," for instance, 

 the pointer at the end of a 

 rod attachment is 

 placed directly above 

 the character as it ap- 

 pears on the flat table 

 keyboard. Then a 

 hammer is dropped 

 on a plunger and the 

 impression is made. 

 Several carbon copies 

 may be secured. 



The rod attachment 

 which locates the 

 characters on the 

 keyboard also turns 

 the type cylinder 

 and moves the car- 

 riage. 



The machine weighs 

 about forty pounds. 



