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

138 All About Inventions miles non-stop run. A clear road, and the driver commences to work his engine up to sixty miles an hour. If the conditions are favourable he may have brought the train into its swing in about six minutes, during which time he has covered some three and a half miles. Presuming the track is perfectly straight and level, we will suppose that he shuts off steam at this point, and allows the train to run on until she stops of her own accord—that is, from friction and the resistance of the air. Under normal conditions the train will run on for approximately another 24,000 feet—about four and a half miles. But if the Westing- house brake is applied when the train has attained sixty miles an hour it can be brought to a dead stop within 1,000 feet and in about twenty seconds. In other words, the brake is capable of overcoming the energy possessed by a train travelling at sixty miles an hour, and which it has taken some six minutes to attain, within a thirtieth of that time and one- eighteenth of the distance. The brake fails to arouse attention among the travelling public because it is scarcely ever seen. It is stowed beneath the carriage out of sight and virtu- ally out of mind. The only visible feature of its exist- ence may possibly be the air-pump upon the loco- motive. If the brake were within the field of visi- bility it would command more attention, provoke thoughts of wonder, and be considered a marvel of human ingenuity. Consequently, very few people appreciate the fact that the relatively small con- trivance mounted beneath the coach whereby the retarding of the train is brought about, is much more powerful than the huge, gaunt locomotive