CCXXXViii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association in Octo- 

 ber last, for the purpose of regulating competitive business 

 in the Southeast, may prove to have been the most important 

 event of the year. During the year, likewise, the State of 

 Missouri established a Railroad Commission, and enacted se- 

 vere laws regulating rates. The State of Minnesota repealed 

 its laws regulating and limiting rates minutely, and substi- 

 tuted a Commission with power only to investigate and rec- 

 ommend. The Erie Railway Company was added to the 

 long list of American roads unable to pay interest on their 

 funded debt. Of nearly $500,000,000 of railroad bonds 

 which had ceased to pay interest before the close of 1874, 

 payment was resumed only in one or two cases. Several 

 railroads were sold under mortgage during the year; ar- 

 rangements were completed to obviate a foreclosure in sev- 

 eral cases, but a large number of companies have not yet 

 completed any settlements with their creditors. Railroad 

 traffic was generally lighter than in 1874, and rates lower; 

 expenses were likewise somewhat lower. 



In railroad improvements perhaps the most notable events 

 were a more extended application of Hall's Electric Signal 

 system, especially on Boston railroads; the introduction of 

 the well - known Saxby & Farmer interlocking signal and 

 switch system much used in England on the Pennsylvania 

 Railroad ; and a system intended to effect the same objects 

 by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, the 

 invention of two officers of that road, Messrs. Toucey and 

 Buchanan. The Saxby & Farmer system has been in opera- 

 tion upon the principal railroads of England, with such emi- 

 nent satisfaction that by Act of Parliament its use has been 

 declared obligatory on all new lines in that country. The 

 following brief comments, from one of our leading journals, 

 will convey some idea of the merits of the system: "Unless an 

 engine-driver deliberately shuts his eyes to prominent dan- 

 ger signals, and intentionally dashes his train to destruction, 

 it would seem that with the Saxby & Farmer mechanism 

 an accident is hardly possible. The switch-tender is utterly 

 precluded from making a blunder, either in signals or in lock- 

 ing or setting his points. The very worst he can do is to 

 neglect his duty altogether, and the only result arising there- 

 from would be a temporary stoppage of the trains. He can 



