EDITOR'S TABLE. 



415 



eral examples are given by Mr. Adams 

 of these terrible occurrences, which 

 "indicate the tremendous nature of the 

 pressure which has been required to 

 even partially force the American bell- 

 cord into use in tliat country." 



But the stolid indifference of rail- 

 road conservatism is by no means con- 

 fined to England. Mr. Adams remarks: 

 " It will not do for the American rail- 

 road manager to pride himself too 

 much on his own greater ingenuity and 

 more amicable disposition. The An- 

 gola disaster has been referred to, as 

 well as that at Shipton. If the ab- 

 sence of the bell-cord had indeed any 

 part in the fatality of the latter, the 

 presence in cars crowded with passen- 

 gers of iron pots full of living fire lent 

 horrors almost unheard of to the for- 

 mer. The methods of accomplishing 

 needed results which are usual to any 

 people are never easily changed, wheth- 

 er in Europe or in America ; but cer- 

 tainly the disasters which have first 

 and last ensued from the failure to de- 

 vise any safe means of heating passen- 

 ger-coaches in this country are out ot 

 all proportion to those which can be 

 attributed in England to the absence of 

 means of communication between pas- 

 sengers on trains and those in charge 

 of them. There is an American con- 

 servatism as well as an English; and 

 when it comes to a question of running 

 risks it would be strange indeed if the 

 greater margin of security were found 

 west of the Atlantic. The security af- 

 forded by the bell-cord assuredly has 

 not as yet, in this country, offset the 

 danger incident to red-hot stoves." 



Mr. Adams gives an interesting ac- 

 count of the introduction of various 

 other safety appliances on railroads, and 

 shows that they were mostly repeti- 

 tions of the bell -cord experience. 

 Among these improvements none are 

 more important than the brakes under 

 the control of the engineer, for quickly 

 stopping trains running at high speed. 

 The American Westinghouse brake, by 



which an air-pump, attached to the 

 boiler of the locomotive and controlled 

 by the engineer, forces atmospheric air 

 through tubes running under the cars, 

 by which the brake-blocks are pressed 

 against the wheels, is incontestably the 

 most perfect contrivance for quickly 

 stopping trains that has yet been in- 

 vented, as by means of it the hand of 

 the engine-driver is in fact upon every 

 wheel in the train. This contrivance 

 was of course delicate, and was at first 

 liable to get easily out of order ; but it 

 was gradually perfected so as to become 

 automatic and thoroughly trustworthy. 

 " In this country, the superiority of 

 the Westinghouse over any other de- 

 scription of train-brake has long been 

 established through that long prepon- 

 derance of use which in such matters 

 constitutes the final and irreversible 

 verdict." But in Great Britain its in- 

 troduction was vigorously resisted, and, 

 as it was energetically pushed, there 

 grew up a war among the different 

 contrivances, to which Mr. Adams de- 

 votes an interesting chapter under the 

 title of "The Battle of the Brakes." A 

 royal English commission on railroad 

 accidents was appointed, and undertook 

 a series of competitive trials with the 

 different inventions. "Eight brakes 

 competed, and a train consisting of a 

 locomotive and thirteen cars was spe- 

 cially prepared for each. With these 

 trains some seventy runs were made, 

 and their results recorded and tabu- 

 lated ; the experiments were continued 

 through six consecutive working-days. 

 The result of the trials was a very de- 

 cided victory for the "Westinghouse au- 

 tomatic, and upon its performances the 

 commission based its conclusion that 

 trains ought to be so equipped that in 

 cases of emergency they could be 

 brought to rest when traveling on level 

 ground at fifty miles an hour within a 

 distance of 275 yards." Tlie result was 

 sufficiently decisive, and the Board of 

 Trade urged upon the English companies 

 the adoption of the brake which had 



