A New Safety Device for Railway Crossings.

The treadmill was an early invention to force the victim to keep on walking without getting any further. So, for theatrical effects, horses and men may be sent running at full speed on the stage but still stay within sight of the audience. The effect is produced by the portion of the stage on which the running is done itself moving (in the opposite direction), at practically the same speed as the runners, so that relatively to the rest of the stage, and to the audience, they remain in the same place. The same principle has, we learn from an exchange, been applied in an American invention to prevent motor cars from passing over railway crossings when a train is approaching.

Rollers are sunk in the pavement of the road. They extend all the way across the road in front of the crossing gate and are rotated backwards. A car standing on them then continues to stand, even when its wheels are revolving, as the part of the roller on which the wheels grip simply turns backwards away from the crossing gate. A roller platform, 18 feet in length, is fixed on each side of the crossing, tests having shown this length to be sufficiently effective.

The idea of the invention is that the rollers are to be actuated by machinery for an adequate period before the approach of a train, so as to prevent reckless drivers, as well as runaway cars, from crossing the line. In its fullest development, the approaching train itself is intended to switch on the current, and also to operate the locking switch on passing out of the danger zone.

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