666 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



INCALCULABLE ACCIDENTS. 



By WILLIAM A. EDDY. 



WHEN we consider the quantity of metal and the jars and 

 strains to which it is subjected as railroad trains move 

 at high speed, it becomes difficult to estimate the effects of acci- 

 dents and to think of a way to evade injury. "When caught be- 

 tween trains rapidly passing each other it is claimed that if the in- 

 cautious pedestrian remain standing the result will be disastrous, 

 and that safety is assured only by lying down. This peculiarly 

 perilous situation illustrates a simpler phase of the complications 

 that may arise when an accident is imminent, in which the dan- 

 ger may be principally due to the fact that the noise and interpo- 

 sition of one train conceal the presence of another. 



The surprising and unexpected nature of some railroad acci- 

 dents was exemplified in the experience of the engineer of a pas- 

 senger train which was moving at the rate of about forty miles an 

 hour. He felt a jar and heard a terrific clatter beneath his loco- 

 motive. At the same time he was astonished to find that the seat 

 on the other side of the engine cab where the fireman usually sat 

 had been torn away, and the fireman thrown backward and left 

 insensible. The engineer instantly knew that one of the bars 

 connecting the driving-wheels of his locomotive had broken. The 

 partly detached piece of steel beat against the cab with severe 

 blows caused by the rapid revolutions of the wheels. He jumped 

 to his feet to escape injury, just as the bar on his side of the loco- 

 motive broke also and tore away the seat which he had vacated. 

 The crippled locomotive was then derailed, causing general de- 

 struction of the running gear and woodwork of the cars. 



This derangement in the mechanical structure of a locomotive 

 occasionally happens, and it is one of the possible accidents that 

 every locomotive engineer must guard against. It is clear that 

 familiarity with special machinery sometimes lessens the fatality 

 due to an accident, because the resulting effects have been looked 

 for during many years, and the action to meet the conditions de- 

 cided upon. But the complication is increased by the fact that 

 each accident may be unprecedented. For example, at another 

 time the side-bar broke away from the driving-wheels altogether, 

 and, striking against a jutting point of rock, bounded beneath 

 the train, which was under full head-way. This long, powerful 

 piece of steel then flew along the track under the train and pierced 

 a hole through the floor of the rear car. Meantime the brasses 

 and some of the more delicate machinery on the forward part of 

 the locomotive were torn away and, falling on the track or rails, 

 threw off the last four wheels of the rear car, which was dragged 



