FIRST TRIALS OF THE WESTINGHOUSE ATMOSPHERIC BRAKE.
The Westinghouse atmospheric brake was patented April 13, 1869; and the first public trial took place on the Panhandle road about the same time. The trial was so satisfactory, that the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, which have been always noted for their liberal patronage of every meritorious device likely to promote the efficiency and safety of railroad operating, had a train equipped with the brake. This was the Walls accommodation train, a kind of service where frequent stops were required, and was therefore well calculated to demonstrate the true character of any brake. A number of public trials were made with the brake thus fitted, among which was one by the Master Mechanics’ Association in the middle of September, 1869, on the Horseshoe Bend on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Here a train of six cars, running down a grade of 96 feet to the mile, at the rate of 30 miles an hour, was stopped in a distance of 420 feet. Such a feat was unprecedented at that time, and attracted wide-spread attention.
In the following month, official trials of the train were made by the officers of the Pennsylvania Railroad near Philadelphia. The train was then taken to Chicago, where numerous tests were made in the presence of leading Western railroad officers. So convincing were these trials of the decided efficiency of the brake, that, immediately afterwards, the Michigan Central Railroad and the Chicago and North-Western Railway each ordered a train to be fitted with the brake.