sary to drop this uncoupling lever from this locked position so that the coupler would be in proper position for coupling up on impact. With the great increase in the density of traffic and the amount of business to be handled in the railroad yards, this feature, which was wholly satisfactory under the conditions which the coupler was originally designed to meet, seems to require some modification so that the trainman would not be required to give the coupler any attention after a "cut off" had been made. To meet both of the above conditions, the manufacturers of the Janney coupler have been for some time perfecting a new design of coupler. In it they have embodied all the desirable features of the Janney coupler in regard to simplicity of design, interchangeability of parts, and quality of material and workmanship, and in addi

LIFTER A ACTING AS A LOCK-TO-THE-LOCK"

A

KNUCKLE CLOSED AND LOOKED

The Kelso Coupler

The Kelso Coupler

LIFTER A ACTING AS A LOOK-SET"

KNUCKLE OPEN AND UNLOCKED

The Kelso Coupler

tion, the new feature of the "lock-set." This "lock-set" is a part of the mechanism of the coupler which acts automatically when the lock has been raised by the uncoupling lever to the unlocked position to hold it locked in that position, without the necessity of locking up the uncoupling lever, until the cars part. It is not necessary with this device to lock up the lever by a bracket, or for the trainman to hold it up by hand and run along beside the cars until they part, as is the present general practice. The lock-set is claimed to be positive in action, and does not set the lock for coupling until the knuckle has opened 80 per cent. of its range of movement. The same member which acts as the lock-set in the uncoupled position also acts as a "lock-to

the-lock" in the coupled position, preventing any possibility of break-in-twos on account of an accidental creeping of the lock. While it is entirely unnecessary, as stated, to hold up the uncoupling lever by hand to make a cut off, if a trainman should inadvertently do it, not knowing that it was unnecessary, he would not get his fingers jammed by the uncoupling lever being snapped down against the end sills either during an uncoupling or a coupling up operation. These couplers are made in open hearth cast steel and of two designs, one with a 5x5-inch neck and the other with a 5x7-inch neck. Many thousands of these couplers are already in service and it is probable that many of your readers have already seen them, and operated them in their daily work. CORRESPONDENT.

Advancing Freight Rates.

Newspapers are wrought up over the fact that railroads are advancing freight rates. There is nothing to be wondered at in their advancing rates. In other classes of trade and industry there has been an advance all along the line. The railroad must pay more for coal, for lumber, for ties, for bridge material, for iron and, in fact, for nearly everything that it uses in carrying on its business. Labor, too, in many cases, has been advanced, but not often commensurate with the advance in other lines. That the railroads should desire in these days to show a net profit on their business equal to that of the days when times were not so prosperous is to be expected.

If flour advances, the miller raises the price to the merchant, and he to the consumer, and so with other commodities the public expect it. Then why not expect the railroads to do likewise? It is true that if the railroad raises the grain rate two cents per bushel from the Missouri River points to Chicago that it really means a loss or, properly speaking, a reduction in the price of grain to the producer of an amount equal to the raise in rates, in this case of two cents per bushel. Carrying it farther, the man who furnishes the timber to build wagons and other farm implements advances the price of material. The farmer, i. e., the consumer, pays the bill. He recognizes the necessity and accepts it. Why not be reasonable with the railroads?

railroads to lessen the cry against what is claimed to be their enormous profits, is to eliminate all water from their capitalization and to do business on the actual cash investment. If a railway corporation does show that they are only doing business in a business way there is a general belief that they are holding something back in the way of true earnings, or that they are estimating their profits on capitalization that is altogether too great and, in reality, therefore, the profits are much beyond what they appear to be. The profits in the railroad world do not seem to be as great as in some other lines of business. Steel trust stock, Standard Oil and several others offer more returns to the investor. How much water there is in their capitalization can only be guessed at, and the railroad suffers from their advance the same as any other customer.

The only way the people can be protected from unjust exactions in the way of profits is to legislate the water out of the trusts and corporations, turn the light of publicity on their inner workings, and the result will not only be beneficial for the people, but for the corporations themselves, by establishing them on a business basis of their true value. Under present conditions the railroads have the same right to advance rates that any other concern has to advance prices, and no fault should be found with them for so doing. While the advance in the price of labor might justify an advance in the prices of commodities, the reverse has been the order; the advance in various commodities has forced labor to ask, and often demand, an increase in wage compensation or, else suffer the consequent wage reduction from a rise in prices.

Labor's share of the wealth it produces has always been small enough at the best, and labor is justified from an economic standpoint in securing all the compensation possible on the capital invested, and then it will not secure a profit on the investment, let alone on watered stock or fictitious values.

The reason that labor is prosperous at the present time is that the working people are practically all employed at living wages. Therefore the calls for aid from the unemployed are not heard, but the advance in the price of labor has not been commensurate with the advance of other things, and it is doubtful if many will be prepared to meet the rainy day that always follows close on the heels of prosW. L. FRENCH.

Dialogue No. 15-Eight-Inch Air

Pump.

Student. I wish that you would please take up the operation of the air pump.

Instructor.—All right, I will do so this afternoon. What is the duty of the air pump?

Student. As I understand it the duty of an air pump is to store energy in air so that work can be done with it.

Instructor. That is right. How does it do this?

Student. I do not know.

Instructor.-It shuts up the free atmospheric air into a much smaller space than it occupies naturally. The energy stored in steam is used to accomplish this result, for the air resists such treatment and it requires power. A portion of the energy in the steam used, therefore, is stored in the air confined. Air confined is constantly trying to expand and occupy the same space which it did previous to being confined. The larger the amount of free air confined in a reservoir the greater the force which it will exert to get out. The confining of air into a smaller space is termed compressing it. The upper part of the pump is the motor, and the lower part the compressor. The working parts are shown in this sectional cut, in heavy black. Can you name them?

Student.-Main steam piston and rod; air piston; main steam valve; reversing piston; reversing valve; reversing valve rod; two discharge air valves, and two receiving air valves.

Instructor. Do you understand how the up and down movement of the piston is obtained?

Student.-No, sir.

Instructor.-If steam is admitted to the top of the main steam piston 10, with no pressure on the under side of it, what do you think should happen?

Student.-Why, it will be moved down. Instructor. That is right. Now suppose that there is no pressure on the top of the piston, and pressure is admitted to the under side, what will the result be? Student. The piston will be moved up again.

Instructor. That is right, and you understand, then, it is simply necessary to admit steam to one end of the cylinder and when the piston has been moved to

the opposite end, exhaust it and admit steam to the other end to obtain the up and down movement of the piston.

Student.-Yes, I understand that steam must be admitted to first one end of the cylinder and then the other to produce the movement necessary, but I do not understand how this admission is accomplished.

Instructor. All right, I will try and make it clear to you. The steam chest is the space between the pistons which for the main valve. With the throttle and governor open there should always be a pressure of steam in this chamber.

The main valve is 7 in the cut, and is made up of two pistons of different diameters connected together by a rod. The upper one moves in bushing 25 in the cut, and the lower one moves in bushing 26. Each of these bushings has two series of ports, the upper series in bushing 25 is the exhaust port for the upper end of the cylinder, and the lower series in this bushing is the admission port for this end of the cylinder. The lower series in bushing 26 is the exhaust port for the lower end of the cylinder, and the upper series in this bushing is the admission port for this end of the cylinder. The rod to which the pistons are connected is of such length that the admission or exhaust port, in both bushings, can not be open at the same time. When the admission port in one bushing is open the exhaust port in the other bushing must also be open. The main steam valve, then, controls the admission and exhaust of steam to the cylinder. Do you understand that pistons of different diameters have different power to move with the same number of pounds pressure acting on them, as indicated by a gauge?

Student. I have been told so, but I do not understand about it.

Instructor.-Pressure indicated by a gauge is the force acting on every square inch of surface which the steam is in contact with. Supposing that we have two pistons that are square, one 2 inches square and the other 4. If we had weights of 100 pounds each, oblong in form, and one inch square at the end, we would be able to stand just 16 of them on the 4-inch piston, and these weights would be equal to a force of 1,600 pounds acting on that piston. On the 2-inch piston we are only able to stand 4 of these

nut.

15. One-inch exhaust pipe union nut.

16. REVERSING VALVE.

17. REVERSING VALVE ROD. 18. Reversing valve plate.

19. Reversing valve bush.

20. Reversing valve chamber cap. 21. Reversing cylinder cap.

22. Reversing cylinder.

23. REVERSING PISTON, complete. 24. Reversing piston packing rings.

25. Upper main valve bush.

26. Lower main valve bush.

27. Packing nut.

28. l'acking gland.

29. Upper valve chamber cap.

30. UPPER DISCHARGE VALVE. 31. UPPER RECEIVING VALVE.

weights, which would give a force of only 400 pounds acting on this piston, or onequarter of that on the 4-inch piston. These weights are equivalent to 100 pounds, as indicated by a gauge, acting on these pistons.

The larger piston is said to have an area of 16 square inches, and the other 4 square inches. The large end of the main valve, which is the upper end, is 2 inches in diameter and, therefore, has 3.1416 square inches area, while the smaller, or lower end, is only 1% inches in diameter, and has only .994 square inches area. With 100 pounds steam pressure acting on these pistons the upper or larger one will have a force of about 300 pounds, while the lower or smaller one will have only about 100 pounds force. It is therefore apparent that when nothing else interferes with it the main valve will be moved up, admitting steam to the upper end of the cylinder and exhausting it from the lower end, and the main piston will be moved down. It is only necessary now to find how the main valve is moved down, for we know if the main valve is moved up

44. Discharge valve stop.

45. Valve stop set screw.

46. Chamber bush set screw.

47. Three-fourths inch reservoir union stud.

48. One-inch exhaust pipe union stud. 49. Three-fourths inch steam pipe union

stud.

50. Main valve stop.

51. Reversing valve plate bolt.

52. Pump head bolt.

53. Three-fourths inch union swivel.

54. Governor union nut.

55. Governor union stud.

56. Piston stuffing box.

57. One-inch union swivel.
58. Piston rod nut.
59. Cylinder head plug.

and down steam will be admitted and exhausted from the cylinder so as to cause the movement of the main piston. What is that working part, the stem of which rests on top of the main valve?

Student. The reversing piston. Instructor. Should you think from the cut that the diameter of this piston is larger than the upper end of the main valve?

Student.-Yes, I should say it was.

Instructor.-You are right, it is 2% inches in diameter and, therefore, has 3.546 square inches area, and with 100 pounds steam pressure it will have a force of about 350 pounds. The space under the reversing piston is always open to the exhaust so no pressure ever occurs under it. Now supposing there was the same pressure of steam on top of the reversing piston as is between the pistons of the main valve, say 100 pounds, which way do you think the main valve would be moved?

Student. I should say it will be moved down, as there is about 150 pounds more force to move it down than there is to hold it up.