Owing to the large number of accidents, Mr. F. D. Adams, of the Boston & Albany Railroad, recommended to the Master Car Builders' Association, at its third convention, in 1869, that a uniform height should be established for couplers; their failure to meet when cars came together being considered the cause of numerous accidents. In 1871 that convention adopted 33 inches as the standard height for standard-gauge cars. At the convention of 1873 Mr. M. N. Forney urged that a committee investigate the cause of accidents and make recommendation. This committee in the following year gave as the principal cause the same as reported by Mr. Adams eight years before. They pronounced the tests of automatic couplers to date a failure. Another committee at this same convention gave the first recognition to automatic couplers by reporting that a great advantage would be derived from a uniform drawbar, such as would be accepted as a standard and which would be a self-coupler. During several years following various models were examined, but nothing was found to meet the demands. In 1877 Mr. John Kirby, of the Lake Shore, reported that his company intended to equip 100 cars with self-couplers, and at the same meeting Mr. Garey, of the New York Central, told of having been waited upon by a committee of yardmasters, asking for dead blocks or some such safety device. This turned the attention of the Association from the coupler to the dead block. In the year following they invited the Yardmasters' Association to act in concert with their committee in reporting upon means of safety for protection of yard and train men in the performance of their duties. This was the situation when on March 19, 1880, the Massachusetts Legislature instructed the Railroad Commission to investigate and report with recommendation as to means of prevention of accidents in the coupling of cars. They reported that they preferred to be guided by the action of the railroad companies, and any device made standard by them would, in their opinion, be the best recommendation for such device. In 1882 the Connecticut Railroad Commissioners recommended to the Legislature that automatic couplers be required on all new cars. In 1883 the Massachusetts Commissioners expressed the hope that the Master Car Builders' Association would at its convention agree upon some type of coupler for freight cars.