A.I.E.E. Record of Dr. William Robinson
Copy of Dr. Robinson’s record made from original application No. 1265 to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 33 West 39th Street, New York City. (Record filed July, 1909.)
References given by Dr. Robinson:
William B. Potter.
E. W. Rice, Jr.
Theodore Stebbins, Dallas, Texas.
Frank J. Sprague, 165 Broadway.
Prof. Chas. A. Cross, M.I.T.
Prof. Elihu Thomson.
Goss & Bryce, Mech. Eng., 76 William Street.
George L. Fowler, Cons. Eng., 53 Broadway.
Wm. Wallace White, Foreign Patent Solicitor and Consul, 309 Broadway.
WILLIAM ROBINSON (A.M., Ph.D.)
ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEER
Born November 22, 1840, North of Ireland, of Scotch-Irish descent on paternal side and English on maternal side.
Eligible for Transfer: Under clauses (a) and (c).
Education: Graduate of Wesleyan University, full Academic course, receiving the degrees of A.B. in 1865 and A.M. in 1868.
Post-Graduate of Boston University in 1907, with degree of Doctor of Philosophy; course including Electrical and Mechanical Engineering.
Occupation and Work Done: Engaged in developing and practising electrical engineering from prior to 1870 up to the present time (1909).
Original inventor and patentee of the automatic electrical and electrically controlled fluid pressure signal systems for railroads now in universal use on the leading railroads in the United States and foreign countries, wherever and by whomsoever installed, throughout the world.
1870. Received four United States patents on this system; applications filed earlier.
1870. Exhibited an elaborate working model of the system at the American Institute in New York, showing the automatic signal system in operation under control of passing cars.
1871-2. Original inventor and patentee of the closed track circuit system of signaling. Received basic United States and French patents covering same, in 1872. Applications filed, 1871.
1870-71. Original inventor and patentee of the automatic electro-pneumatic signal systems for railroads in use for many years past. Received basic British patent covering this system in 1871. So far as I have been able to ascertain on careful investigation, this patent appears to be the first ever issued anywhere on this subject.
The following brief historical excerpt is taken from a United States patent granted to me on October 20, 1908, No. 901,383, on an electric railway system. This patent is one of a bunch of eight taken out by me on the same date, on the same subject. The excerpt relates to my work in signaling.
“The block signal system herein disclosed is an embodiment of the Robinson electro-pneumatic system now in extensive operation on the Pennsylvania railroad and many other leading railroads in this and other countries, embodying the closed circuit rail system for which a basic U.S. patent was granted to me on August 20, 1872, No. 130,661 (reissued July 7, 1874), the electro-pneumatic signal system disclosed in my British patent of August 30, 1871, No. 2280, the subject matter of both of which patents is disclosed in my French patent of February 29, 1872, No. 94,393. The electro-pneumatic signal system disclosed in the above named patents is also disclosed in my United States patent dated November 7, 1882, No. 267,259. As above indicated the block signal system herein described comprises the system described in my above named patents and now in general use on leading steam railroads, but modified and improved in a way adapting it for reliable and efficient use in connection with electric railroads of the sectional third rail type.”
The admission of the above brief history in the above described, and substantially in two other patents of the same date, is, of course, a complete verification of its historical accuracy by the Patent Office.
1872. In 1872 I put the closed track circuit system of signaling in practical and successful operation at several points on different divisions of the Philadelphia and Erie railroad, and on other roads.
1872-79. In 1872 to ’79 I installed the closed circuit rail system of automatic signaling on various railroads in Pennsylvania, New England and elsewhere. I perfected the system and put it in as perfect and efficient and durable operation at that time as it is in today, including all its functions of block, switch, road-crossing, overlapping, rear and front, tell-tale and broken rail detector.
1878. Organized and owned the Union Electric Signal Company, based solely on my signal patents, at that time nine in number. Some time afterwards George Westinghouse and his associates bought the controlling interest in the Union Electric Signal Company and reorganized the company under the name of the Union Switch and Signal Company. Thus, the automatic signal system of the Union Switch and Signal Co. consists, in every essential particular, of the Robinson system, pure and simple.
It may be here pointed out that all the railway signal companies now in operation, installing automatic signals under whatever name, are using the Robinson system bodily, and have been since the expiration of Robinson’s basic patents. There is no other system, as a system, in use.
History: Several years ago I published a “History of Automatic Electric and Electrically Controlled Fluid Pressure Signal Systems for Railroads,” the only authentic history ever published on the subject.
This was written and published at the instance of engineering friends, in the interest of indisputable historical accuracy.
Telephone Experiments
1876. As a matter of more or less interest I may here state that I carried on a conversation by telephone, in 1876, through a railroad track, the circuit consisting of the two rail lines constituting a closed circuit signal block.
1877-8. Delivered numerous illustrated lectures on the telephone, and at this time discovered the principle of the wireless telephone and actually transmitted speech clearly back and forth across an open space of several inches to and from a telephone having but one terminal grounded and the other free in the air. The free, uninsulated wire (except at supports) extended several hundred feet through the air. The instruments used were large magneto telephones of my own special designing, and made by me for the special purpose of illustrating lectures. No battery was used.
Electric Railway Systems
Outside of automatic signaling I have done considerable work along original electrical lines.
In addition to other work of importance I have for more than fifteen years devoted much time to developing a radically new departure in electric railroading.
On this system I have applied for more than twenty patents, extending over a series of years, fourteen of which patents have already been issued.
What This System Accomplishes
The third rail or contact conductor is made in sections or blocks of any desired length, which sections are normally dead but become automatically alive when a train enters thereupon, and dead when the train leaves the section.
When a train enters upon a section or block it prevents the section back of it from receiving working current. Thus any number of trains following each other will each be deprived of working current when the length of a block back of the train ahead of it, whether that train be running or standing still, thus preventing collisions.
A train approaching a switch or drawbridge is automatically arrested the length of a block away from the block containing the switch or draw before a bolt can be withdrawn or a lock released in the latter.
No possibility of interference between a possible wandering propulsion current and the functions of any other current.
All currents used may be of the same or have any combination of different characteristics.
The system is elaborate, providing for safety on and off the trains, economy of current, simplicity and certainty in action, dispenses largely with electrolytic action, and when alternating propulsion current is used the return is confined to the length of the block. It is believed that the system will prevent all danger to passengers and trains from the direct action of the propulsion current.
President Roosevelt called the attention of the Interstate Commerce Commission to my electrical and mechanical inventions for making railroading safe.
Mechanical Engineering
I have done considerable original work in mechanical engineering.
In this connection I may mention the well known Robinson Radial Car Truck, which is in quite extensive operation on electric railways. This is the only car truck, I believe, ever designed and constructed on correct mechanical principles. It is so constructed that every axle in the car or train becomes exactly radial to any curve around which it passes, all the axles becoming parallel on straight lines only. This prevents wear and tear and grinding and derailment on curves. It also greatly economizes current.
One of these radial cars, in St. Louis, having a 28-ft. body, exclusive of platforms, equipped with a radial truck having a 15-ft. wheel-base and two motors, stopped in the middle of a street corner curve and started with the same power as on a straight line, as shown by careful tests with volt and ammeters. The test was made by officials of the company without my knowledge at the time. I believe this is the coming truck for electric locomotives.
(I forward by same mail a catalogue of the Robinson Radial Car Truck, fully illustrated, for the information of the Board.)
Coaster Hub
I am also the inventor of the back pedal braking and coasting bicycle hub, which has been in general use for many years. My application for a basic patent covering this hub has been pending in the Patent Office for twelve years, held back nine years by interference litigation in the Patent Office, owing to an effete interference system which has no apology to offer to justify its existence.
Turbine Engines
In turbine engines I have made some important improvements.
In one the engine is reversible by the movement of a single lever in either direction.
In a second the steam is utilized a second time under conditions doubling the original efficiency, and balancing the end thrust perfectly.
In a third improvement the engine develops more than three times as much power as any other turbine of its class occupying the same floor space. Patents allowed but not yet issued.
I figure that ocean steamers should furnish a large field for these machines.
Respectfully submitted,
(Signed) William Robinson.
276 Stuyvesant Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Part II