REPORT OF MR. ROBERT B. LINES.
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by a vibrating electric-bell at one or more points. This was put in successful operation within a year or two at several points on the New York and New Haven, and other roads. The semaphores consisted of a disc of colored cloth, stretched over a hoop and placed upon one end of a swinging-lever, the other end being provided with a counter-balance, and the disc is displayed by means of an electro-magnet, the armature of which was connected by a series of compound levers with its axis.
Mr. Frank L. Pope, the well-known electrical engineer of New York, has kindly furnished me with a drawing and description of his new signal, which, although not on exhibition at Vienna, has taken the first prize at the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, and is already, if I mistake not, in operation on several American railways.
The signal is based on a different principle from any yet described, except that of Mr. Hall. It uses but one wire for the signalling and "control,” and has in this respect a decided advantage over the European systems.
It also dispenses with all clockwork, using the direct force of electro-magnetism to turn the disc. This too, I doubt not, gives the system considerable advantage as regards both first cost and cost of maintenance or attention. The first cost of the European systems, however, I have found it impossible to obtain, in most cases, with any accuracy, and even were it obtainable, the prices here would afford no criterion of the cost in America.
For ingenuity of construction in an electrical point of view, also, the system of Mr. Pope far surpasses any of those heretofore described.
Plate XI.
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