OCR Text |
Show Horn Heralded Coming of Early Locomotive The earliest locomotives had nothing noth-ing more in the nature of a warning of the engine's approach than a tin born blown by the engineer at more or less frequent intervals, but under some circumstances this proved Inadequate. Inade-quate. The resulting volume of sound depended largely upon the lung power pow-er of the engineer and the direction and force of wind. On a spring morning of the year 1S"3 a farmer was driving to market with a load of butter and eggs and, being unfamiliar with locomotives, he loitered on the track too long and failed to hear the warning signal from the tin horn, whereupon the whole outfit was scattered over the landscape. land-scape. The bill whirl! the company had to pay was regarded as staggering and Ashland Baxter, who was director of the company concerned, paid a visit to George Stephenson at Alton Grange to confer with the great Inventor In-ventor to ascertain if something In the nature of an adequate warning could not be Invented to keep people off the track. The result was that Stephenson made the steam whistle which was Immediately adopted for all locomotives then in use and has continued as a permanent feature of all locomotives built In the mean time. |