RAILWAY ACCIDENTS 245 



He must know that his outside lights are burning bright, that the water 

 in the boiler is sufficient, that the air-brakes are in perfect working. 

 He must from moment to moment glance at the hands of his watch, 

 and must know exactly where he is upon the road. And yet all the 

 while his eyes must hardly be taken from the darkness into which his 

 engine rushes, to catch the first glimmer of the signal which is his 

 guide. 



Since the safety of many lives thus depends upon these signal 

 lights and upon their sudden clearness to a mind that must attend to 

 many things at once, the symbols should at all times be the least 

 ambiguous that can be planned. Yet the present night-signals, given 

 by colored lights beside the track — upon many roads, white for 

 " safety," red for " danger," and green for " proceed with caution " — 

 are open to grave objections. For the human eye at its best and with- 

 out abnormality is liable to mistake the signal hues at night, especially 

 when the outward conditions are anywise untoward, whether by the 

 distance or the low-burning of the lamp, or by fog or smoke or storm. 

 And even when the colors are perceived with perfect accuracy, the use 

 of the common oil-light called " white," as one of the signal colors, 

 throws a dangerous task upon the engineer, inasmuch as it requires 

 him to take constant heed lest he regard some window-lamp, or other 

 meaningless light along his course, as a sign that all is well, and in 

 consequence rush onward to his train's destruction. 



That objections of this character are supported by strong evidence, 

 and are not of merely theoretical importance, but are connected with 

 actual and known disasters — to make this clearer is one of the main 

 purposes of the present paper. 



In regard to the use of white as part of the signal code at night, 

 the danger from this source has long been recognized by leading signal 

 engineers, although in spite of this recognition its use continues on a 

 large number of our American roads. It is not many years ago that an 

 accident occurred at Whittenton Junction, Massachusetts, from this 

 very cause. The engineer mistook a lantern hanging from the gate at 

 a street-crossing for his safety signal, and crashed into another train. 

 More recently, Mr. Baggett, of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San 

 Antonio road, has given an instance where disaster resulted from the 

 use of white. The railway signal, in this case, was exactly in line 

 with a light shining from a high bay-window; and when the signal 

 light itself one night was out, the engineer mistook the light in the 

 window for his signal, and a serious accident was the outcome. And 

 other cases are reported by the Interstate Commerce Commission. A 

 switch light happened one night to be extinguished, and the engineman 

 " failed to notice the absence of the light, being deceived, he says, by 

 lights in the vicinity " — a deception which brought damage amounting 



