All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

120 All About Inventions made the best move he could have done under the circumstances. He became a victim, and parted with his money for the regular supply of the paper through the post. When they had disappeared all thoughts of the magazine vanished from his mind. In due course the periodical arrived, and was perused at an idle moment. Scanning the pages hurriedly, the attention of young George Westing- house, whose thoughts ever ran into channels pertain- ing to his craft, became riveted upon the story which formed the main feature of the magazine. It described the construction of the tunnel through Mont Cenis, which was then in active progress. In his leisure he read the article carefully, only to have his thoughts become centred upon one incident in the story. This was the actuation of the drills, boring and cutting into the solid rock-face at a distance of 3,000 feet from the portal, which was the length to which the tunnel had been driven through the mountain at the time the article was written. These drills depended upon compressed air, which was conveyed through a continuous length of pipe. In a flash the secret of the railway brake burst upon him. If compressed air could be carried through a pipe to drive machinery 3,000 feet away, surely it could be carried through a pipe equal to the length of the longest train then in service, and could be induced to actuate the brake rod attached to every axle throughout the train. Compressed air would do for him what could not be done with steam. Excited at this sudden thought, he instantly de- voted his energies towards the designing of a brake system for operation with compressed air. At the