OCR Text |
Show tlRST RUTOMHTfC SWITCH f PROVES fl GREAT SUCCESS ''jv' pTaefJcffrtesT was aaae yesteraay afternoon of the Hurst automatic rail-' road twitch on the Oregon Short Line , track between West Second and We6t " Third South streets. The exhibition was witnessed by a crowd of several hundred citizens, including delegations from the Salt Lake Commercial club and the Salt Lake Manufacturers and Merchants' association, before whom the! proposed location of a factory in this city for the manufacture of these witches is pending. . There were in the crowd of spectators spec-tators also First Vice-President J. Koss Clark and General Attorney C. O. Whittemore of the San Pedro, Los Angeles An-geles & Salt Lake railroad; George J. Majors, Pacific coast railroad representative represen-tative of Fairbanks, Morse & Co., the . mining machinery manufacturers; and also large delegations of local trainmen, train-men, among whom the device is a chief topic for discussion. The switch had been placed on the 'main track of the Short Line to convince con-vince the public of its ability to entirely en-tirely supersede old methods of throwing throw-ing switch points by hands of trainmen and furthermore to demonstrate the claims of the inventor that when a railroad, is equipped with this device "open" switches and "misplaced" twitches are impossible. An engine and car furnished by the Short Line management were used in the tests. A dozen times or more the locomotive was sent up and down the track, and on each occasion took the . siding automatically in accordance with the inventions of the inventor. The mechanism worked perfectly for an invention that is unperfected as yet as' to construction. All kinds of "switches" were "made" with success, suc-cess, even to that known as the "running" "run-ning" switch. The weight of the locomotive or car bearing upon retroactive levers," drawing draw-ing and pulling a series of connected rods placed just outside the rails ef the track and attached to the switch-points switch-points does this great work. It was clearly shown that the engineer under this method becomes his own switchman switch-man so far as "throwing" the tracks, and that the switch lock of the past is now obsolete. The Hurst invention makes railroad casualties from open switches impossible. . Commendations of the invention were profusely showered on Inventor C. M. Hurst bv witnesses of his exhibition. Vice-President Clark of the San Pedro Pe-dro road said: "I was much pleased with the way the switch works. The demonstration seemed to be very satisfactory. Of course it is new, being the first practical prac-tical application, and will have to be more lullv pertected in construction. But the main principle employed has merit and it promises to be developed into a most practical adjunct to railroad rail-road operation." The formal opinions of the delegations delega-tions of Commercial club and Merchants Mer-chants and Manufacturers' association will be made to their respective organizations; organ-izations; but speaking for himself personally per-sonally Secretary Fisher Harris of the Commercial club" said he was much gratified grat-ified and that he believed the invention inven-tion is a success. The Commercial club's representatives representa-tives present included R. E. Miller of the Intermountain Milling company, and chairman of the committee on manufactures and new industries; F. W. Gardiner, E. F. Hanna, H. J. Hav-ward Hav-ward Ashby Snow, Walter Scott and Orson H. Hewlett, who is also president presi-dent of the Salt Lake Merchants and Manufacturers' association. Other members of the latter organization on hand were O. A. Harris and J. A. Valentine, Val-entine, Secretarv Irvin Morris, J. K. Bruff, WUliam Bowen and Vice-President George S. McAllister. The test was given under the auspices aus-pices of J. F. Hurst & Co.. brokers, financial agent for the Hurst Automatic Auto-matic Switch and Signal company, of which Inventor Charles M. Hurst is president; former Mayor James H. Clause of Rawlins, Wyo., vice-president, and State Senator H. Hansen and T. A. Ready of that citv, treasurer and secretary respectively. " |