highball (railroad usage)

[James A. Landau]

So far I have found that signals such as the "highball" first appeared in the
United States in the mid-1860's, and were largely derived from British
railway practice.  I have not found any citations.  However, the following
reports (which are not available to me) may contain citations:

Report of Ashbel Welch on railroad safety signals,  made on 17 October 1866
in New York City, and reprinted in Transactions of the Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 4
(May 1875) and Engineering News, 9 (11 February 1882), p.45.

Report by J. Dutton Steele in Trans. Am. Civ. Engr., IV 147-240 (1875).

For British railways: R. C. Rapier read a paper on the fixed signals of
railways before the Institution of Civil Engineers in London [Min. Proc. ICE
v.38, pp 142-247 (1873-4)].

These papers were identified in the following Web sites:
      http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/railway/prr/prrsig.htm
      http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/railway/us1875.htm

A photograph of a ball signal can be seen at
      http://www.du.edu/~jcalvert/railway/sigphot.htm

It is interesting to note that the Erie Railroad circa 1870 reversed the
usual American convention by having a low ball mean "Proceed" and a high ball
mean "Stop".

     - James A. Landau