AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 557 



life preservers, water tight partitions, &c.,&c.; of course the 

 signals, track repairs and light houses are none the less necessary. 

 I trust, Mr. Chairman, that before another year passes away, we 

 shall see this device added to the passenger trains, at least, of all 

 our great thoroughfares, unless something better should be devised, 

 and if there is no person will urge its claim stronger than myself. 

 Notwithstanding the best regulations that can be made, we are 

 constantly exposed to danger; the murderous . assassin will put 

 obstructions on the track, the rails or chairs are sometimes defec- 

 tive, the drove of cattle sometimes get on the track, the flood %ill 

 wash the earth or stones on the rails, wheels and axles will break, 

 the flagman will neglect his duty, a hundred things occur which 

 human foresight cannot prevent, how important then to provide 

 every known security. A few years ago it was a matter of 

 course to look for a terrible steamboat disaster as often as once a 

 week, that time has passed away, we now have instead railroad 

 accidents, not so numerous 'tis true but far too many of them. 

 Accidents will occur notwithstanding all the precaution we may 

 take, but our duty is to take advantage of every security so far 

 as known. I have very great faith, Mr. Chairman, in the time 

 honored proverb that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 

 cure. And I trust that our far seeing railroad superintendents 

 will soon give us an example of a perfectly secure railroad train 

 so far as present knowledge extends. 



On motion of Mr. Edwin Smith, the thanks of the Club were 

 passed to Mr. Creamer for the valuable paper read by him, and a 

 copy requested for publication in the " Transactions.'' 



Mr. R. L. Pell made the following remarks on car brakes : 



When car brake comes in contact with the wheel of a locomo- 

 tive, friction is produced, by rubbing the surfaces of two solid 

 substances against one another. If these surfaces were polished, 

 the engine would slide along without suffering resistance from 

 contact; but as this state of perfect polish can never exist, the 

 brake does exercise an impediment, and the wheels cease to move. 

 In order, therefore, to ascertain the real value of a brake, it is 

 necessary to discover the amount of the friction, and to add the 

 new resistance to that given by the common theory of mechanics. 



The laws of friction, with respect to certain substances, have 

 occupied the minds of hundreds of experimental mathematicians 

 and philosophers, among whom may be named Desaguliers, Vince, 

 Euler, and Amontous. But Culomb, so early as 178U, made the 



