132 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[June 1, 189?. 



THE l y/^g^ fSCIENCE 



The]^ 



QUEEN'S REIGN 



PROGRESS IN MECHANICAL SCIENCE DURING 

 THE QUEEN'S REIGN. 



By EoBERT Gordon Blaine, M.E., Assoc. M. last. C.E. 



THE British have been called a " nation of shop- 

 keepers," but the right of the Anglo-Saxon people 

 to be called a nation or " nations of handicrafts- 

 men " is at least as clear. In reviewing some of 

 the salient features of the wonderful progress in 

 mechanical arts, appliances, and methods which has 

 characterized the Victorian epoch, it may serve to keep 

 this article within reasonable limits if we confine our 

 remarks mainly to matters which concern ourselves. 



The place of our own people in the van of progress has 

 been so prominent that it will not be necessary to go far 

 from home ia cur review. The progress which has taken 

 place in the various departments of mechanical science 

 may be best appreciated if the matter be put in the shape 

 of contrasts. 



FACILITIES FOK TRAVELLING, 



Perhaps the most striking changes which have taken place 

 during the last sixty years are those in regard to facilities 

 for travelling. What were the usual means of locomotion 

 when our gracious Queen ascended the throne ? We re- 

 member that Watt and Stephenson had inaugurated a new 

 era by the evolution of the steam-engine and the intro- 

 duction of steam propulsion or traction on suitably pre- 

 pared roads ; but the great majority of people travelled on 

 horseback or in horse-drawn vehicles. 



Previous to the Queen's ascension the mileage of railways 

 open in the United Kingdom was less than one thousand, 

 and the capital invested less than thirty millions sterling. 

 At present there are, in these islands, upwards of twenty- 

 one thousand miles of railways open, representing a capital 

 of over a thousand millions. In England we have twenty- 

 seven pounds per head of the population invested in rail- 

 ways, against thirty-two pounds per head in Scotland, and 

 a little over eight pounds per head in Ireland. It may be 

 said, then, that our railway system has been developed 

 during the Queen's reign. It is true that the population 

 has increased, and that increased mileage would have been 

 necessary to give even the same population one mile of 

 line ; but we have advanced in scientific attainments and 

 conveniences arising therefrom far beyond the mere increase 

 of population. The latter has increased from about twenty- 

 six to thirty-nine millions, whilst railway mileage has 

 increased from one thousand to twenty-one thousand miles. 

 In other words, there are now living in these islands fifteen 

 persons for every ten alive in 1837, but those fifteen have 

 infinitely greater facilities for travelling than they would 

 have had if they had lived then. Thus, sixty years ago 

 there were in the United Kingdom twenty-six thousand 

 persons per mile of railway, whereas to-day there are only 

 one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven persons per 



mile. The increase of the urban population has been much 

 more marked than that of rural districts, for during the 

 last decade the former has increased fifteen per cent., 

 whilst the latter has, in the aggregate, only increased about 

 two and a half per cent., many rural districts showing an 

 actual decrease ; thus the population of Ireland — chiefly 

 agricultural — has decreased from about eight millions to 

 four and a half. We have this remarkable result, that trades 

 and districts which have been able to avail themselves of the 

 lowering of expense of production and other advantages due 

 to improved machinery and methods, have increased in 

 population at the expense of others not so fortunately 

 situated. 



Facilities for travel have greatly changed the currents 

 of public opinion, spreading that species of information 

 which experience alone can impart, and breaking down the 

 barriers of that prejudice and contentment with imperfect 

 conditions which arise from ignorance of the world. In 

 addition to this there is, of course, the more immediate 

 result of increased trade. 



The great increase of urban populations has raised some 

 difiicult problems, and is in many respects to be deplored. 

 Greater facilities for travelling in and near towns have 

 become necessary, and questions of sanitation — including 

 water supply — have become of vital importance. Nor 

 have the efforts to raise the conditions of life in towns 

 been, in most cases, unsuccessful. Thus the average 

 annual death rate per thousand in London has decreased 

 from about twenty-five in 1840 to nineteen now, amounting 

 to an annual saving of nearly twenty-two thousand lives in 

 London alone. In some provincial towns, however, owing 

 to the increase of noxious trades, the decrease in death rate 

 is not so marked. 



Not only in mileage have railways advanced, but the 

 speed, safety, and comfort of travelling have become enor- 

 mously greater. The earlier third-class carriages were 

 mere rectangular tanks on wheels, open at the top and 

 without seats. 



Third-class passengers have proved the dividend payers 

 of modern times, and now this fact is beginning to meet 

 with some recognition and reciprocal benefits. In the 

 early days, however — say, in 1840 — third-class passengers 

 did not contribute more than twelve per cent, of the gross 

 revenue of the companies. 



The mileage of railways open in the United States has 

 trebled in the last twenty-five years, being now over one 

 hundred and eighty-one thousand miles, representing a 

 capital of over two thousand million pounds sterling. 



In facilities for urban and subm-ban travelling our Trans- 

 atlantic cousins have still further outstripped us. Whilst 

 we in London have still to be content, to a great extent, 

 with the primitive " bus " and a few horse-drawn tramoars, 

 in the United States there are no less than twelve thousand 

 one hundred and thirty-three miles of electric, and five 

 hundred and ninety-nine miles of cable tramways — • 

 scarcely a large village being without its installation. In 

 Brooklyn alone one company owns over two hundred and 

 sixty miles of overhead trolley electric tramlines. 



With the exception of small tramways at Portrush and 

 Bessbrook in Ireland, and Brighton, Blackpool, South 

 Staffordshire, etc., in England, we have no electrically 

 driven trams ; but the City and South London Railway, 

 with the overhead line in Liverpool, and the two electric 

 lines now being constructed in London, show that we are 

 at last waking up. 



TRANSPORT I!Y SEA. 



Here we are on safer ground. In spite of foreign com- 

 petition, Britain still holds, easily, the premier place in 

 ocean carriage and in shipbuilding. 



