Our (Re)Invention: The Railway Telegraphy System
Even though Granville T. Woods's invention was very handy in the 1880s, it is now obsolete. We saw room for improvement from the schematics we researched.
We decided to completely omit the telegraph part of the system. Telegrams are now pretty much never used in public life. That has been replaced by text messaging. The telephone was still on its way to becoming a stellar invention during Mr. Woods's time, so instead of using his model, we used the everyday models we have now. Our (re)invention consists of two parts. The first is the induction battery and the coils. We basically kept this part the same; it was already very effective. We used copper wire to coil around the battery because it is such a strong conductor: the messages/calls will come in loud and clear. On the inside, we installed a control desk. On this desk there is a radar system, keyboard, telephone, on/off button, emergency/911 button, and locate button. The radar system is connected to the battery and a transmitter which is located on top of each train. The radar screen allows the communications officer to actually see what is going on on the train tracks instead of just relaying messages. This helps to prevent accidents before they are even problems. The locate button is a feature of the radar system. One can type in the name of a train, using the keyboard, press the button, and find them on the radar screen. This helps to keep everyone on schedule. The emergency/911 button is designed to alert the conductor if there is a huge problem and immediately contact emergency services of the train's whereabouts.
Along with the physical model, we had to sell the product. We came up with a company name: RailComm International. Below, you can see each of the components asked of us:
We decided to completely omit the telegraph part of the system. Telegrams are now pretty much never used in public life. That has been replaced by text messaging. The telephone was still on its way to becoming a stellar invention during Mr. Woods's time, so instead of using his model, we used the everyday models we have now. Our (re)invention consists of two parts. The first is the induction battery and the coils. We basically kept this part the same; it was already very effective. We used copper wire to coil around the battery because it is such a strong conductor: the messages/calls will come in loud and clear. On the inside, we installed a control desk. On this desk there is a radar system, keyboard, telephone, on/off button, emergency/911 button, and locate button. The radar system is connected to the battery and a transmitter which is located on top of each train. The radar screen allows the communications officer to actually see what is going on on the train tracks instead of just relaying messages. This helps to prevent accidents before they are even problems. The locate button is a feature of the radar system. One can type in the name of a train, using the keyboard, press the button, and find them on the radar screen. This helps to keep everyone on schedule. The emergency/911 button is designed to alert the conductor if there is a huge problem and immediately contact emergency services of the train's whereabouts.
Along with the physical model, we had to sell the product. We came up with a company name: RailComm International. Below, you can see each of the components asked of us: