The Straight Air Brake
The first form of the air brake consisted of an air pump, a main reservoir (pressure vessel), and an engineer's valve on the locomotive, and of a train pipe and brake cylinder on each car. One problem with this first form of the air brake was that braking was applied to the first cars in a train much sooner than to the rear cars, resulting in shocks and damages when the rear cars bunted against the cars ahead of them.
The main objection, however, was that it was not an automatic brake, i.e. even a minor mishap like a broken coupling left the entire train without any brake power at all.
Read more about this topic: Westinghouse Air Brake Company
Famous quotes containing the words straight and/or air:
“Never believe straight off in a man’s unhappiness. Ask him if he can still sleep. If the answer’s “yes,” all’s well. That is enough.”
—Louis-Ferdinand Céline (1894–1961)
“Hamlet. The air bites shrewdly, it is very cold.
Horatio. It is a nipping and an eager air.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)