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The Westinghouse Brake 135 they had long been searching, inasmuch as it complied with all the varied requirements of railway operation. The fifty-car goods train was dispatched upon a cir- cuitous route through the eastern States to demonstrate the advantage of the new brake at various railway centres. It was a triumphant journey of several thousand miles, because, even at fifty miles an hour, this long train was proved to be under perfect con- trol and capable of being pulled up within a short distance, smoothly and quietly. Each demonstration brought its immediate order for brakes for goods trains, the result being that by the time the train reached home the works were overwhelmed with contracts. It was the success of these tests which shortly afterwards led the American Government to pass a law compelling the fitting of such a brake to all goods wagons, and that within a specified time. Ultimately this limit had to be extended because it was found to be physically impossible to equip all the vehicles in the country within the time set down by legislation. The triple valve constitutes the secret of the success of the quick-action automatic brake, and it is a significant fact, despite the vast improvements which have been effected in the Westinghouse system, that this device, introduced into the invention for the first time about 1870, has ever since been retained : it still constitutes the brain of the brake. True it has been improved, its functions have been extended, and many new duties have been assigned to it; but fundamentally it remains the same to-day as it was forty-five years ago. Yet the quick-action automatic brake did not