Oct. 24, 1872] 



NATURE 



513 



above others is that the better educated, the more intelH- 

 gent,in short, the more scientific, are all,from the highest to 

 the lowest, who arc concerned with the practical carrying 

 out of the application of any scientific principle, the more 

 thoroughly and satisfactorily will the work be performed. 



The author does not say much — indeed little could be 

 said — about Mr. Brassey's personal life, the greater part 

 of the book being occupied with e.xceedingly interesting 

 and varied details as to railway construction. Mr. 

 Brassey, as a contractor, we believe, was more or less in- 

 timately connected with the construction of many thou- 

 sand miles of railway in all parts of the world — Europe, 

 Asia, North and South America, .\ustralia — thus bearing 

 a large share in carrying one of the greatest blessings 

 science has conferred upon humanity, to all the ends of 

 the earth. Not only was the railway itself a great benefit 

 to the country into which it was brought, but the mere 

 process of construction was a boon to thousands of its inha- 

 bitants. There are extensive districts in France in which 

 the material prosperity of the inhabitants has been per- 

 manently raised by the savings which the French labour- 

 ers realised at the construction of the Paris and Rouen 

 railway. With whatever railway, in whatever country, 

 Mr. Brassey had to do, he always liked to have the prin- 

 cipal work done by English navvies ; this was e^en the 

 case in Canada ; and some of the most interesting p.ages 

 of the biography are those in which the railway labourers 

 of other countries are contrasted, in point of character, 

 powers of work, &c., with those of England. Taking 

 them all in all, the latter cannot be beaten for quantity 

 and quality of work. Sir Arthur Helps adds a chapter on 

 " Railways and Government Control," in which he seems 

 to think that it is now high time for Government to take 

 the railways out of the hands of ignorant, irresponsible, 

 conscienceless speculators, and work them itself solely 

 for the public good, which is the last thing thought of by 

 the present managers. One sentence is worth quoting 

 here ; we wish we had room for more : — " It has always 

 appeared to me to be one of the most miserable instances 

 of the hide-bound nature of our official system, which is 

 hampered by so many checks and so much dread of small 

 expense, that the most needful undertakings have to be 

 passed by, or touched but lightly, which require the best 

 intellectual force of the nation to bo brought to bear upon 

 them." 



Mr. Fairlie's book, "The Battle of the Gauges Re- 

 newed," proves the truth of what we have already said — 

 the necessity there is that all who are officially connected 

 with railways should be able to perform their work on the 

 basis of scientifically-grounded knowledge, and not in the 

 light of traditionandcustom,by unintelligent rule-of-thumb. 

 Both by Mr. Herbert Spencer and Mr. George Darwin it 

 has been recently pointed out that the construction of 

 our railway carriages, instead of being based on a 

 rational attempt to adapt them to new and previously 

 undreamt-of circumstances, is simply a continuation, or 

 rather development, of old forms belonging to the lumber- 

 ing stage-coach and rude tramway days. That it is so 

 with regard to the common gauge of wheels (4 ft. S.V in.) 

 is well known, though one would at first sight be inclined 

 to believe that the odd half-inch was significant that this 

 gauge was the result of a careful calculation grounded on 

 the best mechanical principles. That this is not so can 



be learned from Mr. Fairlie's vigorous, clear, and, not- 

 withstanding the apparent dryness of the subject, really 

 interesting book. When railways were first constructed, 

 about forty years ago, men were too much absorbed in 

 the excitement of the new means of locomotion to give 

 any thought to such an app.arently trifling detail as the 

 width that should be maintained between the two rails ; 

 and thus the tjauge which was in general use among the 

 old and rudely constructed tramways was adopted at mere 

 haphazard, without any thought as to whether there was 

 any good reason for adopting the 4 ft. 81 in. How old 

 the gauge is, and how it originated, probably no one 

 knows, though we believe that even now not a few rail- 

 way directors, and even engineers, will be found who 

 maintain that it is a heaven-born institution, and that to 

 alter it would be the height of irreverence and sacrilege, 

 betraying an independence of thought and action worthy 

 only of a nation hke America, destitute of tradition. 

 It is not our purpose here to advocate any one gauge 

 as preferable to another, but simply to say that one 

 lesson taught by the three books at the head of this 

 article is, that the present condition of our railways 

 is, to a large extent, the result of mere guess-work, and 

 that only when the construction of every detail, from the 

 steam-engine down to the gate at a crossing, or a points- 

 man's box, is conducted on rational, /.<■. scientific prin- 

 ciples, can the public, .as well as the shareholders, ba able 

 to reap without drawback all the advantagee which the 

 great application of the power of steam is calculated to 

 produce. On every ground it seems difficult to resist Mr. 

 Fairlie's arguments on behalf of the 3 ft. 6 in. gauge, or 

 even a narrower gauge under certain circumstances ; it 

 has been extensively adopted in America, and exclusively 

 in Norway ; and, we dare say, most people would be as- 

 tonished to hear that at Festiniog, in Wales, an the face 

 of a steep mountain, with gradients of i in 68 and i in 

 79, and with curves varying in radius from S chains to 

 if chains, there has been at actual work for some years a 

 railway with the miniature gauge of i ft. I ItV in. " It is, in 

 fact, the most perfect miniature railway in existence, and 

 deserves to be studied in all its details." Both as a pas- 

 senger and mineral railway, it has done hard and perfectly 

 etScient work for some years. This, at least, shows that 

 the question of " gauge " is worth being inquired into, as 

 indeed ought every other point connected with the con- 

 struction and management of railways. 



The revelation which results from one inquiry after 

 another, and the harrowing effects of the dreadful acci- 

 dents which are almost daily occurring, will doubtless have 

 their effect on the public mind, and urge the people of this 

 country either to compel Government to take the railways 

 into their own hands, or, at least, to see to it that they are 

 managed in some kind of rational and intelligent way, for 

 the good of the public, and not for the sole benefit of a 

 few obtuse directors. 



I\I. de Ouatref;rges, in his opening address at the meet- 

 ing of the French Association, was too sanguine wlien he 

 said, " Science is at present supreme," though we believe 

 he was right in asserting, " She is becoming more and 

 more the sovereign of the world ; " and only when Science 

 reigns supreme over all the practical affairs of men, shall 

 we be on the high road to perfection, in this direction at 

 least. 



