364 SELF-ACTING BRAKE. CHAP. XVII. 



mature his invention of the carriage-brake. When 

 examined before the Select Committee on Kailways in 

 1841, his mind seems principally to have been impressed 

 with the necessity which existed for adopting a system 

 of self-acting brakes ; stating that, in his opinion, this 

 was the most important arrangement that could be 

 provided for increasing the safety of railway travelling. 

 " I believe," he said, " that if self-acting brakes were 

 put upon every carriage, scarcely any accident could 

 take place." His plan consisted in employing the 

 momentum of the running train to throw his proposed 

 brakes into action, immediately on the moving power of 

 the engine being checked. He would also have these 

 brakes under the control of the guard, by means of a 

 connecting line running along the whole length of the 

 train, by which they should at once be thrown out of 

 gear when necessary. 1 At the same time he suggested, 

 as an additional means of safety, that the signals of the 

 line should be self-acting, and worked by the locomotives 

 as they passed along the railway. He considered the 

 adoption of this plan of so much importance, that, with a 

 view to the public safety, he would even have it enforced 

 upon railway companies by the legislature. At the 

 same time he was of opinion that it was the interest of 

 the companies themselves to adopt the plan, as it would 

 save great tear and wear of engines, carriages, tenders, 

 and brake-vans, besides greatly diminishing the risk of 

 accidents upon railways. 



While before the same Committee, he took the oppor- 

 tunity of stating his views with reference to railway 

 speed, about which wild ideas were then afloat one gen- 

 tleman of celebrity having publicly expressed the opinion 

 that a speed of a hundred miles an hour was practicable 

 in railway travelling ! Not many years had passed since 



1 A full description, with plans, of ( M. Guerin, is given in the ' Practical 

 Mr. Stephenson's self-acting brake, I Mechanics' Journal,' vol. i. p. 53. 

 since revived in a modified form by I 



