Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/371

 Popular Science Monthly

��Catching Mailed Eggs from Swiftly- Moving Trains EGGS may now be deli\'ered from a station platform and caught with ease and safety by the mail car of a fast- speeding express train, by means of an automatic mail exchange system recently adopted by a large western railroad.

This device works with great speed. When the train nears a station a lever on the truck of the mail car is operated by a track trip, thus setting in motion the system of cams which perform the functions of discharging and recei\ ing the mail from the station.

A set of arms move out from the side

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of the car, and as the train passej,_the suspended pouches of mail are caught by the arms and drawn into the car. An- other cam, deriving its power from the car axle, picks up the mail pouches which are to be delivered at the station, and deposits them in a chute, where they slide into a trough on the station plat- form. This chute extends down until it nearly touches the platform, and the pouches fall but a few inches. They slide on the smooth surface of the trough until their fall is broken. As soon as the train has passed the station, the ap- paratus is automatically drawn inside the car and the doors are locked.

���The much advertised delivery of eggs by parcel post has produced many patented devices for handling mail sacks without breakage. This oae is already carrying eggs

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