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Coffin realized that railroad workers were being injured at a high rate using link-and-pin couplers, devices which were locked by a brakeman dropping a pin between two iron loops as they came together. Injuries also often occurred to workers sitting on the top of moving rail cars setting hand
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In 1886 and 1887, Coffin scheduled a series of tests of the
Westinghouse air brake, but the tests failed to produce the desired results. Later in 1887, Coffin scheduled another series of tests, this time on a long grade outside Burlington, Iowa. A
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Coffin then turned his efforts to getting a federal law enacted requiring all railroads in the United States to adopt air brakes and automatic couplers as mandatory equipment on all railroad cars. Almost six years later, in 1893, President
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steam locomotive started downgrade with 50 cars rolling behind it. When the train hit 40 mph, the engineer put on the air. The freight shuddered to a dead stop within 500 feet. The air brakes had worked.
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ticket in 1908. Coffin was also involved with the prison reform movement. He also established a home for unwed mothers under the auspices of the
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Coffin served as Iowa's immigration agent, and as the state's first
Railroad Commissioner, from 1883 until 1888. He established the Railroadmen's
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Coffin adopted
Elizabeth Murray in 1912, when she was 36, and this created quite a controversy at the time. Elizabeth was the daughter of
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that could stop a train from controls in the locomotive, but the railroads would not adopt these devices since they cost too much money.
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In 1890, Coffin drafted the first railroad safety act and it was passed by the Iowa legislature that same year.
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117:(April 9, 1823 – January 17, 1915) was an American farmer, politician, and campaigner.
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and
Caroline (Holaday) Murray of Iowa. He did not name her in his will.
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and served on a variety of boards and associations, including the
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movement, helped establish the
Railroadmen's Retirement Home in
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in Iowa, in 1867. Coffin was an early farm news editor for the
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1890 Laws of Iowa, chapter 18, p. 31-32 (emphasis added)
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346:. by Richard F. Snow, October/November 1979
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401:. Fort Dodge. January 18, 1915. p. 2
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378:"Safety Appliances on the Railroads"
429:The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa
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431:. University of Iowa Press, 2009.
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187:Prohibition in the United States
291:"Lorenzo S. Coffin Burial Plot"
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251:Railroad Safety Appliance Act
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425:"Coffin, Lorenzo Stephen"
225:had developed a workable
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469:Businesspeople from Iowa
180:Highland Park, Illinois
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320:"Roberts Octagon Barn"
208:Railroad worker safety
191:United Christian Party
115:Lorenzo Stephen Coffin
44:Lorenzo Stephen Coffin
382:The Railway Conductor
324:National Park Service
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395:"Grim Reaper's Toll"
367:49 U.S. Code § 20302
267:Willowledge Cemetery
154:Fort Dodge Messenger
146:Webster County, Iowa
127:Alton, New Hampshire
223:George Westinghouse
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98:Farmer, politician
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247:Benjamin Harrison
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273:References
215:Eli Janney
150:round barn
77:Fort Dodge
50:1823-04-09
227:air brake
165:Civil War
121:Biography
85:Education
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79:, Iowa
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176:YMCA
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