Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 302, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 December 1918 — HOME TOWN HELPS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HOME TOWN HELPS

SIGNAL AT DANGEROUS CURVE Automatic Apparatus Eliminates Hazard Where It Is Imperative Cars Should Not Meet. The danger signal therewith illustrated is now in operation in California, and has been so efficient in eliminating the hazard certain sharp, blind curvethatS petition has been circulated, favor!ng'the installation of the device at other dangerous turns and blind crossings. At the particular turn where the signal has been tried, the road is so narrow that it is absolutely necessary that cars should not meet; if they do, there will either be a collision or” a backing out by one of them to the neck of the bottle. Moreover; the curve is sharp and blind. The apparatus which has been put in to meet this condition consists o£ a trigger trap in a box 12 inches wide and any length. This is buried the surface of the highway, with the trigger projecting about two Inches above the , trap. When this trigger is run ovenby-gn automobile the wheel presses It downward, and in this way pulls a wire

which nips underground to a signal post. This wire is connected with a ratchet which revolves the arm on the signal post, warning any autoist who may be coming in the-.opposite direction to wait for the first car to pass him before he ventures on the dangerous stretch. Of course it would be out of the question to employ here a signal that had tq be reset. The car which set It might fail'to run over a resetting trigger; and the car coming the other, way could not be left to (reset It, because there is nbt always such a car. So advantage is taken of the fact that while highly dangerous, the narrow piece of road is fairly short. The danger indication consists merely in motion of the signal arm, not in any particular position thereof; and a car which is near enough to the signal post to enable its driver to see such motion will not reach the curve until the signaling car has passed off it. — Popular Science Monthly.

Highway Block Signal and the Trap at the End of the Dangerous Stretch Which Operates It .