i
THE BATTALION
His text-book was
a freight-car
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Corliss A. Bercaw
When Corliss
A. Bercaw went
down to the
tracks to get
facts for his thesis
in 1918, he was
only following a
lifelong habit.
From the time he was old
enought to delight in the shrill
whistle of a locomotive, through
his student days at California
Institute of Technology, the
most fascinating thing in the
world to him was a railroad train.
It isn’t just happy chance that,
at 29, he is a Sales Engineer in
the Transportation Division of
the Westinghouse Company, at
Philadelphia. And it was quite
natural that Bercaw should have
an important share in the ne
gotiations involving one of the
most revolutionary transporta
tion developments of the century
— the development of the gas-
electric rail car.
This design provides locomo
tion within the passenger car
Jfjf* “What's the future with a
large organizatioti?" That
is what college men zuant to know
first of all. That question is best
answered by the accomplishments
of others zvith similar training
and like opportunities. This is
otie of a series of advertisements
portraying the progress at West
inghouse of college graduates, off
the campus some five—eight—
te?i years.
itself. So on many branch lines
locomotives can be discarded
with great saving to railroad
companies and with increased
convenience to passengers.
But to perfect this new car
required thorough cooperation
between the Westinghouse and
Brill Companies, whose engi
neers supplied, respectively, the
electric generator and gas engine
which, combined, give this car
its practical advantages. Bercaw
acted as a liaison man during
this development stage, and
now he is engaged in selling,
among other things, these cars,
representing the newest idea in
railroad transportation.
When Bercaw entered the
Graduate Students’ Course at
East Pittsburgh in May, 1919,
he was fresh from college—and
naval aviation. His enthusiasm
for railroading was not allowed
to cool—he wasn’t shunted into
unfamiliar lines. For thirteen
months he was a student in the
Railway Shops. Then for six
months in the General Engineer
ing Department he learned how
to apply Westinghouse Equip
ment to railroad needs. It was a
logical step next to the Heavy
Traction Division of the Sales
Department at East Pittsburgh.
And two and a-half years there
landed him in his important
work in Philadelphia.
To men who find a railroad
train fascinating, Westinghouse
opens a field that has unlimited
opportunities for success.
Westinghouse
THE SIMPLE SCIENTEST SAYS:
That a British Thermal Unit is not
a division of the British army equipp
ed with thermos bottles; it is merely
the English term for “A warm
number.”
* * *
That auto-intoxication is the com
bination which causes most of the
grade crossing accidents.
* * *
That the watt was so named from
an exclamation made by the first per
son who received an electric shock.
The other two words of the exclama
tion were later dropped.
That the head of
Hospital must have
physics.
our College
majored in
That a street railway booster
system is a part of the advertising-
department.
* * *
“And how did the installment man
take it when you swore at him for
dunning you?”
“Oh he was calm and collected.”
* * *
Second Variation in List of Six
She must buy her clothes on the
installment plan because she only
wears them one installment at a
time.