Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 247, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 October 1916 — DOES AWAY WITH DEFECTS [ARTICLE]

DOES AWAY WITH DEFECTS

Discovery of Railroad Expert Will Add Many Years to the Life of Steel Rail. Forty years of experimentation on the most"efltclent method of -manufacturlng steel rails has culminated in an announcement by the New York Central railroad of thes, perfection of a process for the elimination of hidden defects in rails, which has been the chief cause of the country’s railroad wrecks. The process, it is declared, has solved a problem that has baffled experts since the railroad Industry in the United States began. The man primarily responsible for the process is Plimont Henry Dudley, consulting engineer of the roud, who has spent nearly half of hls life in what lie modestly termed “the labor of love.” ~Blr. Dudley Is seventy-two years old, and has contributed at least six important Inventions to the rallrdad Industry. The flaws, or Interior fissures, as they are called, never can be detected visibly In a rail. It has only been by following specifications laid down by Mr. Dudley in the manufacture of the rail and then reheating the finished product in a special plant, that any hidden defects can be removed. It is said that extensive experimentation with this process, has proved that this is a sure way of eliminating every possible defect. According to recent figures broken rails caused 3,045 accidents In 1915, the death of 205 person* injuries to 7,341 persons and a loss of about $4,000,000. Mr. Dudley’s invention, so far ns it has been applied on the New Central lines, has already reduced rail breaks from one break in fiOO rails to one break in 142,000 rails.