Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1915 — Mask Protection for Engineer in Tunnel [ARTICLE]

Mask Protection for Engineer in Tunnel

Railroader Tolls How Ho Camo to Adopt It—Overcome by Gao In Mountain Cut C. R. D. Jones, an engineer employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad, exhibited an interesting invention when he appeared before the board of arbitration in oeoslon In Chicago. Jones was called by the locomotive engfe seers, enginemen and firemen seeking higher wages and better working conditions on ninety-eight Western railroads. The invention which he showed the board was a funnel shaped contrivance of tin from which extended a long rubber tube. He explained it was his mask or respirator, which he used aa a protection against gas fumes when going through the tunnels of the Southern Pacific over the pass in the Siskiyou Mountains, between San Francisco, Cal. and Portland, Ore. The respirator, Jones said, received compressed air from the engine through a sponge. Cracked ice cools the air. Jones said he earned a little more than $5 a day. He told a story of one of his experiences during which he nearly lost his life. "I remember it was on a Friday,” said he, ‘‘and there were thirteen cars behind my engine, which was in the middle of the train. There were five oil burning engines hauling and pushing the train. “While passing through tunnel IS, which Is 8,120 feet long, our train had to stop because the track was blocked at the other end. I was on one of the middle engines and knew we could dot stand the deadly atmosphere very long. So I got down to cut the train in two and back out. “Almost as soon as I got to the ground I staggered and everything grew black. I fell, then lost consciousness. The other men had to make three trips before they were able to find me. I was taken to Ashland, Ore., and placed In the care of the company's physician.” Jones added that during his illness he was not paid anything by the railroad.