To Prevent Railway Accidents

W. C. Shaffer has recently perfected a marvellous inveDtion for preventing railway accidents, The Phüadelphia Press says ; The in vendon makes it possible for trains on the same track to approach within the same distance of an open switch, ■ir a broken rail, or an open drawbridge, or a wrecked or standing traiD, or any other danger, even if firemen, engineers, and aignal men are druck or asleep. In short, the human element is removed entirely. These marvellous results are wrought by electricity and a system of levers worüed automatically by passing trains. The esaential features of the appiratus are a current of electricity, generated by a dynamo machine, and aeut along one rail for any given distance, as for a hundred miles, and a return wire, strung on poles, to píete the circuit, The current along the rail is interrupted by boxes placed Ht arbitrary intervals, at every mile along the track, and containing a tnagnet and an armature. With these the return wire is also connected. The magnet in each box is connected by a wire and rods with a lever by ihe side of the track. Another lever in a lücomotive, as it passes over the lever by the track, depresses it, opens or breaks the circuit which was before closed, deprives the magnet in the box of its attractive force, which had before drawn to it in the armature. The armature falla away from the magnet. The train ruthes by and the lever by the track springs up again. But the armature, by falling away fvom the magüet, has thrown out a danger signal by the side of the track and locked a catch which holds the lever by the track rigid, so that it will not yield to the pressure of a following locomotive. Inaiead, the uow immovable lever by the track forcea up the lever m the locomotivo, which íb alwajs movable, but which would have sufficient resistance to orce down the lever by the track had it not been locked by the preceding train. The lever in the locomotive, beiüg thna forced up by its simple tnechanical connections, automattedlly blows the whistle, shuts off the team, and applies air to the brakes. Meantime the train which first passes rushes on, secure from a rear end collision. It might stop with perfect saf'ety, even if no flagman went back on the track, lf it goes ahead it passes another Ie vel at the next mile, which it aleo automaticaliy locks, putting a second guard between itself and danger from the rear. When it reaches the Becond mile, there is a box and lever - the lever is locked by the engine, as before. But. now an ingenious device unlocks the lever two miles back. At eaoh box there is a Becond lever by the other rail of the track. A projection on the rear car of the passing train strikes tb is and forces it down. The current in the returning wire is at once closed; the magnet in the box two miles back is jnce more given its attractire power; lts armature is draw home, and the first lever by the track is unlocked. A fullowing train can now pass the point without interruption; but as it passes it again locks the lever, and is itself secure from the rear for two miles back. The boxes, with their interlocking circuits, are placed every mile along the track, and traína are stopped twice if they attempt to approach within two boxcs of each other. Switches are included in the same current. A switch closed and safe ieaves the current closed, and does uot affect the levers by the track. 1 But, if the switch is misplaced, or if a rail is broken or a drawbridge open, the circuit is of' course broken. The armatures of the boxes two miles away fall away from their powerless magnets, and the levers by the track are locked and unyielding, and will at once stop any train approaching the danger. The levers, when applied to a single track road, eau of couráe, be electrically connected with other levers two miles ahead of a train as well as two miles behind, so that there will be warning of danger ahead as well as in the rear.