By Rudolph Daniels

(Dean, Department Chair of Railroad Operations Technology and instructor of railroad history at Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City, Iowa)

Our Fort Dodge farmer, Lorenzo Coffin, did more than introduce the automatic coupler to railroads. He also revolutionized the entire transportation industry with the air brake. Here's your Inside Track...

A train is very difficult to stop. That's because the steel wheel on a steel rail has a minimum of friction. The early train brakes were a shoe that was pushed against the wheel by a series of pinions and gears. To engage the brake, the brakeman had to climb on top of the freight car and turn the gears that pushed the shoe against the wheel. To release the brakes, the gears had to be turned in the opposite direction.

Brakemen applied and released the brakes many times on a train trip whenever the engineer gave them the stop signal with the locomotive whistle. The process was dangerous. A brakeman had to jump from car to car to do his job. Often the roofs were slippery from the rain, ice, and snow. The cars were always bobbing and swaying, and it was easy to lose footing and grip.

George Westinghouse invented a primitive air brake that used a series of air reservoirs. Brakes would apply when air pressure was reduced or lost. In that way, brakes applied automatically whenever there was a leak or a hose would break.

The railroad industry was reluctant to use the new invention. It was costly and not yet perfected. Now enters our Iowa farmer turned Railroad Commissioner, Lorenzo Coffin. Coffin convened the car building companies to run a series of tests using Westinghouse's air brakes. He scheduled them in 1886 on the track entering Burlington, Iowa. This track was ideal because it was on a rather steep slope. The first series failed, however.

The next year, Coffin held a second series. After adjustments and increasing the diameter of the pipe, the air brake stopped a 50-car train traveling at 40 miles per hour. The Westinghouse air brake was a success, thanks to our Iowa farmer, Lorenzo Coffin.

In the Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893, Coffin required the air brake along with the automatic coupler. Those two inventions alone decreased fatal accidents of railroad workers by 60%! The air brake now permitted trains to run faster and increased revenue for the companies.

Thereby Lorenzo Coffin made railroading more efficient along with making it more safe. And by the way, the same air brake technology is used today on heavy trucks and buses. So, the next time you are in Burlington or Fort Dodge, say thanks to our Iowa farmer who helped revolutionize the transportation industry.