TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 



129 



from the chimney-top, except just at the period when a new supply of fuel is being 

 thrown on, and this creates but a partial smoke for a few moments. 



The fourth and last plan to which attention was called is one which occurred to the 

 author about eighteen years ago, when reading through a course of chemistry. As he 

 did not confine himself to the mere conception of the idea, but carried it out into 

 execution, and found it, so far as the experiments tried were concerned, perfectly 

 successful, he ventured to introduce it as a plan which might he adopted with success, 

 and easily modified to suit any existing state of circumstances. The principle upon 

 which this plan proceeded was to convert the chimney itself into a smoke-consuming 

 apparatus. For this purpose, it was supplied with a 

 series of crucible-ware pipes, packed close together, 

 so as to present the appearance from above of a 

 honeycomb, or of a magnified section of some plant 

 of the cane tribe. The chimney thus arranged was 

 made to bend and return through the furnace in such 

 a manner as that the earthenware tubes might be 

 exposed to the heat of the fire and kept in a state of 

 red heat. When once this condition was effected, 

 the smoke which arose from the surface of the fuel 

 was completely consumed ; so much so, that though 

 a quantity of small coal was thrown on, the dense 

 vapour was entirely consumed in its passage 

 through the cellular chimney, and nothing but sulphurous and heated air escaped 

 from the vent. The experiment was tried on many difl^erent occasions, and always 

 with the same successful results. The furnace employed was one of Stourbridge 

 bricks, having an inner diameter of about 12 inches; but in this experiment the 

 comparative smallness of the apparatus would tell, not in favour of but against the 

 success of the ti-ial, inasmuch as a higher temperature could have been procured with 

 apparatus on a larger scale. From the issue of the trial on a small scale, the author 

 believes that it would be equally successful on a larger one, and he will gladly hear of 

 the adoption of this principle in any manufacturing premises of an extensive character, 

 calculated to test the invention to the full, and to prove the desirableness of its uni- 

 versal adoption. 



On Railway Collisions, with Suggestions for their Prevention. 

 By the Rev. Francts V. Statham, M.A. 



The author expressed his belief that the greatest security of the public in railway 

 travelling would be found in precautionary measures, in the selection of careful and 

 steady men as pointsmen, signal-keepers, guards and engine-drivers, and in the con- 

 stant supervision of all the working machinery ; but he still thought that some addi. 

 tional contrivances might be devised, connected with the moving train itself, which 

 might render considerable service in avoiding collisions. The present modes of 

 avoiding railway collisions are almost totally ineffectual. The use of the railway- 

 break, and the expedient of shutting off the steam and reversing the locomotive, would 

 not bring a train moving at the velocity of 30 miles per hour to a state of rest under 300 

 yards. The problem to be solved was one, then, of retardation, and the contrivance 

 desired one which should reduce this stopping distance of 300 yards to the minimum, 

 — say to 200, 100, or even 50 yards. He showed that an immediate stoppage would be 

 almost as fatal as a collision, and suggested that men of inventive genius should be 

 stimulated to seek retarding agents by the oflTer, on the part of government, of some 

 adequate premium. He commented on the importance of having some public ejcpc 

 riment-ground, duly fitted up with rails, locomotives, and carriages, for the trial of 

 promising schemes, and observed, that if, after two years' trial, no sufficient remedy 

 could be devised, the public would still have the satisfaction of knowing that their 

 lives were not imperilled without all the resources of modern science having been 

 ransacked in vain. The author expressed his firm conviction that some adequate 

 contrivance would hereafter be invented, and urged the importance of striving to 

 hasten the time when it might be made known and brought into active use. 



Mr. Statham suggested for consideration the resistance to be gained by opposing a 

 larger surface than that of the ordinary train to the action of the air. The state of 



1853. 9 



