But in 1879 Mr. Eli Janney, of Pittsburg, patented an automatic car-coupler that was both simple and effective; and in 1887 the Master Car Builders' Association accepted this type of coupler. A little later the U. S. Government, influenced by the appalling loss of life among the brakemen, passed laws compelling all cars to be equipped with some form of automatic coupling device, and naturally the Janney coupling was the one adopted. In using this coupling the brakeman did not have to step into the dangerous position between the cars, either for making the coupling, or disconnecting the car. The act of coupling was done automatically, while the uncoupling was effected by the use of a lever operated from the side of the car. A somewhat technical description of this coupling is as follows: "The Janney coupling consists of a steel jaw fitted on one side with a knuckle or L-shaped lever turning on a vertical pin; this knuckle when being swung inward lifts a locking pin which subsequently drops and so prevents the return of the knuckle. An identical coupler is fitted to the end of the adjacent vehicle, and, so long as both or either of the knuckles are open when the vehicles come into contact, coupling will be effected; to uncouple, it is only necessary to raise either of the locking pins, by means of a chain or lever at the side of the vehicle. The knuckles have each a hole in them to permit of the use of the old link and pin coupler, when such a fitting is met with. At first, this coupling gave some trouble through the locking pins occasionally creeping upward, but in the larger model, which represents the later form, there is an automatic locking pawl that prevents this motion; owing, however, to the pawl being attached to the lifting shackle, it in no way interferes with the pin being raised when disconnecting." Even before the invention of the Janney coupling a semi-automatic coupling device had been used extensively on passenger cars. But this device which in effect was that of two crooked fingers hooked together, allowed the ends of the coaches to swing and roll in a manner most disagreeable to many passengers. The Janney couplings corrected this, since these couplings in their improved form hold the ends of the cars as in a vice. A COMPARISON--THE OLD AND THE NEW Stephenson's locomotive and its tender, when loaded to full capacity with fuel and water, weighed seven and three-quarter tons. The locomotive itself was a trifle over seven feet long. In 1909 the Southern Pacific Railway purchased a Mallet Compound locomotive which, with its tender, weighs three hundred tons, or approximately forty times the weight of the little _Rocket_. This great locomotive is over sixty-seven feet long, or some nine times the length of the _Rocket_, and will haul more than twelve hundred tons back of the tender. [Illustration] [Illustration: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOCOMOTIVE.