ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,351,220, issued on July 8, was assigned to Athena Industrial Technologies Inc. (Calgary, Canada).
"Broken rail detector" was invented by Paul D. Gies (Calgary, Canada).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A method and apparatus to detect breaks in tracks and/or detect the presence of a vehicle, such as a train, in a monitored section of the track or rail. Embodiments of the present invention measure the change in track inductance associated with a track or rail break. Electrical shunts are connected between the rails at spaced-apart intervals (for example a shunt can be placed every mile). At least two different frequencies of alternating curren...