502 EEPORT— 1881. 



is now from 50 to 60 miles an hour for passenger trains, while slow- 

 speed goods engines, weighing 45 tons, draw behind them coal trains 

 of 800 tons. The injector is commonly employed, and by its aid a careful 

 driver of the engine of a stopping train can almost succeed in doing 

 the whole of the feeding at the time when his engine is at rest at the 

 stations, and when, therefore, no demand is being made on the boiler. 

 The link motion is in common use, to which, no doubt, is owing the very 

 considerable economy with which the locomotive engine now works. As 

 regards the question of safety, it is a fact, that, notwithstanding the 

 increased speed, railway accidents ai'c fewer in proportion than they were 

 at the slow speed. Indeed, the number of deaths is so small that, if 

 the whole population of London were to take a railway journey, there 

 would be but one death arising out of it. Four millions of journeys for 

 one death of a passenger from causes beyond his own control, is, I 

 believe, a state of security which rarely prevails elsewhere than in a 

 railway train. As an instance, the street accidents in London alone 

 cause between 200 and 300 deaths per annum. This safety in railway- 

 travelling is, no doubt, largely due to the block system, rendered possible 

 by the electric telegraph ; and also to the efficient interlocking of points 

 and signals, which makes it impossible now for a signalman to give an 

 unsafe signal. He may give an incorrect one, in the sense of inviting the 

 wi'ong train to come in, but although incorrect in this sense, it would still 

 be safe for that train to obey it. If he can give a signal that signal 

 never invites to danger. Before he can give it every one of the signals 

 which ought to be at danger must be at danger, and every point must have 

 been previously set so as to make the road right. Then again, we have the 

 facing-point-lock, which is a great source of safety. Further, we have 

 continuous brakes of various kinds, competent in practice to absorb three 

 miles of speed in every second of time — that is to say, if a train were 

 going 60 miles an hour it can be pulled up in 20 seconds, or if at the 

 rate of 30 miles in 10 seconds. With a train running at 50 miles an 

 hour it can be pulled up in from 15 to 20 seconds, and in a distance of 

 from 180 to 2-10 yards. Moreover, in the event of the train separating 

 into two or more sections, the brakes are automatically applied to all the 

 sections, thereby bringing them to rest in a short time. Another cause of 

 safety is undoubtedly the use of weldless tyres. I was fortunate enough 

 to attend the British Association Meeting many years ago at Birmingham, 

 and I then read a paper upon weldless tyres, in which I ventured to 

 prophesy that in ten years' time there would not be a welded tyre made. 

 That is one of the few prophecies that, being made before the event, 

 have been fulfilled. I may perhaps be permitted to mention that at the 

 same time I laid before Section G plans and suggestions for the makinp^ 

 of the cylindrical parts of boilers also without seam or even welding. 

 This is rarely done at the present time, but I am sure that in twenty 

 years' time such a thing as a longitudinal seam of rivets in a boiler will 

 be unknown. There is no reason why the successive rings of boiler- 

 shells should not be made weldless, as tyres are now made weldless. 



The next subject I intend to deal with is that of Motors. In 1831 we had 

 the steam-engine, the water-wheel, the windmill, horse power, manual 

 power, and Stirling's hot-air engines. Gas engines, indeed, were proposed in 

 1824, but were not brought to the really practical stage. We had then tide- 

 mills ; indeed we have had them until quite lately, and it may be that 

 some still exist. They were sources of economy iu our fuel, and their 



