INVENTION OF THE WESTINGHOUSE ATMOSPHERIC BRAKE.
In this exacting age, the traveling public are much more disposed to find fault with systems that do not provide against fatalities resulting from human fallibility, than to commend the perfection of appliances which annually save more lives than would be lost in a sanguinary war. The Westinghouse brake has performed this life-saving service, yet its great conserving merit has been but feebly appreciated outside of railroad circles. During the decade between 1860 and 1870, America became a reproach among nations for the frequency and disastrous nature of its railroad accidents. To-day fewer railroad travelers in America lose their lives by accidents beyond their own control, than the travelers in any country under the sun. The credit of this immunity from fatal accidents is almost entirely due to the successful operation of the Westinghouse and other brakes that followed the line suggested by this invention.