ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,459,551, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to Athena Industrial Technologies Inc. (Calgary, Canada).
"Broken rail detector" was invented by Paul D. Gies (Redwood Meadows, 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, which can include for example a train, in a monitored section of the track or rail. Embodiments of the present invention measure the change in amplitude and/or phase angles. Electrical shunts are connected between the rails at spaced-apart intervals. At least two different frequencies of alternating current are generated and fed into the segments ...