Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/771

 Popular Science Monthly

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��An Iron "Flag" for Protecting the Railroad Gar Inspector Against Injury

EST year a single railroad killed four men and injured nearly four hundred others who were underneath the cars in- specting and making repairs. The blue flag which they had stuck in the ground a short way off to warn locomotive engineers of their dangerous position had fallen down or had perhaps been knocked down by some careless workman.

In an effort to put an end to such need- less and pitiful slaughter, a railroad equipment company has developed a fool- proof flagging device. A blue "flag" of iron is placed on the track in front of the car to be repaired. The repair inspector locks this to the track and only he can re- move it. Little chance now for an engineer to plead ignorance and to back his train into the other car.

This iron flag can be planted on the track, winter or summer, in a few seconds. The flag standard is an iron pipe inside which two clamp arms slide. When the arms drop down, they can be placed over the sides of one of the car rails. The inspector then shoves the pipe down. The arms come together and hug the rail securely. The inspector then pad- locks them to the rail.

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����Padlocking the blue metal flag to the track to warn engineers against backing their trains into the car that is being repaired

When the flag standard is shoved down, the arms clamp the rail. When it is locked, only the inspector himself can remove it

��The tree stood in the pathway. Rather than chop it down a path was cut through it

"Woodman, Spare That Tree," Said the People to the Roadmaker

WEST of the Rocky Mountains, trees of enormous size are numerous. Many of them are supposed to be hundreds of years old and are con- sequently revered. To cut down a tree which has taken so many years to reach devel- opment seems a crime. Therefore when the West- erners find one of them blocking the path of progress they resort to various expedients to give it the right of way without sacrificing the public needs.

The accompanying photograph shows a tree which completely blocked the foot-path of a new street in Everett, Washing- ton. The tree was a fir and was in full foliage. Rather than cut it down or compel people to make a detour around it, a pathway was cut directly through it, wide enough for two people to pass abreast. It was finished off at the top in an arch, which enhanced the orna- mental effect. The cutting did not harm the tree. In some of the redwood trees of California paths have been cut wide enough for horses and wagons to pass through.

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