The DIRTY SECRET Behind American Railroad Safety скачать в хорошем качестве

The DIRTY SECRET Behind American Railroad Safety

The DIRTY SECRET Behind American Railroad Safety Subscribe: ‪@legendarylocomotives‬ In 1889, American railroad workers were dying at twice the rate of their British counterparts. The difference wasn't skill or luck - it was equipment. American railroads used link-and-pin couplers that forced workers to stand between moving freight cars, guiding metal links into place while twenty tons of iron rolled toward them. Missing fingers weren't a tragedy - they were proof of experience. British railroads used buffer-and-chain systems that let workers connect cars from the side using long poles. No one had to stand in the crush zone while cars moved. The result: dramatically fewer catastrophic injuries. The solution existed. Eli Janney patented an automatic coupler in 1868 that locked on contact - no one between the cars. By 1885, testing proved it worked. European railroads adopted the principle immediately. American railroads looked at the same data and did nothing. The reason was simple: workers were cheaper than equipment. The federal land grant system rewarded railroads for miles completed, not quality built. Retrofitting cars cost millions. Replacing workers cost almost nothing. By 1890, only ten percent of American freight cars had automatic couplers. Congress passed the Safety Appliance Act in 1893, but railroad lobbying delayed enforcement until 1900. When it finally took effect, coupling accidents dropped from 38% of all injuries to just 4%. The technology had always worked - someone just had to force the railroads to use it. By 1907, railroad accidents had become responsible for more deaths than any other industry in America. The dirty secret wasn't that railroads were dangerous. It was that they chose to stay dangerous for decades after safer options existed.Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.