102 



EOBERT STEPHENSON, M.P. 



[1854. 



TABLE OP THE EXPECTANCY OF LIFE. 





1. 



2. 



3. 



4. 



5. 



6. 



7. 





O 















Age. 



o 



to 



rt 



3 



Hi 

 O 



a 

 a 





a> 

 CO 



a 







32.74 



44.68 



43.00 





32.02 



42.95 





5 



40.84 



51.25 



40.05 



48.27 



45.07 



46.79 





10 



39.78 



48.82 



38.00 



46.83 



43.09 



45.07 





15 



36.51 



45.01 



35.05 



43.51 



40-05 



41.64 



25.38 



20 



33.43 



41.46 



33.00 



40.22 



37.03 



38.02 



23.67 



25 



30.85 



37.86 



30.05 



37.17 



34-07 



34.58 



21.49 



30 



28.27 



34.34 



28.00 



34.06 



32.00 



31.21 



20.48 



35 



25.68 



31.00 



25.05 



30.88 



28.09 



28.03 



19.09 



40 



23.08 



27.61 



23.00 



27.48 



25.08 



24.66 



17.38 



45 



20.52 



24.46 



20.05 



23.89 



22.07 



21.61 



14.24 



50 



17.99 



21.11 



18.00 



20.38 



19.05 



18.46 



13.66 



55 



15.58 



17.58 



15.05 



17.25 



16.04 



15.53 



13.31 



60 



13.21 



14.34 



13.00 



14.25 



13.04 



12.63 



12.16 



65 



10.88 



11.79 



10.05 



11.26 



10.08 



10.10 



10.62 



70 



8.60 



9.18 



8.00 



8.64 



8.04 



7.72 



9.31 



75 



6.54 



7.01 



5.05 



6.50 



6.04 



5.91 



7.37 



80 



4.75 



5.51 



3.00 



4.69 



5.00 



4.28 



5.60 



85 



3.37 



4.12 



.05 



3.21 



3.08 



3.23 



5.04 



90 



2.41 



3.28 





1.77 



3.01 



2.05 



3.52 



95 



.75 



3.53 







2.01 



1.00 



1.19 



100 





2.28 







.05 







104 





.50 













Robert Stephenson* M.P* 



(Continued from page 168.) 



It increases the expense of the carrying- department ; the engines 

 are more expensive, so are the tenders ; the workshops from their 

 size are also more expensive; the stations also require greater 

 room. I think all the sidings are of a larger radius than those 

 upon the narrower guage, in order to allow the engine to go 

 through -without grinding the rails or sliding upon them. In 

 fact everything is upon an increased scale. The time-tables are 

 so cumbrous that they cannot use them. * * * I see no 

 good reason why the expenses of working should be less. There 

 are several items which in my opinion tend to make it more. I 

 believe the resistance of the wide carriages moving along the line 

 of the broad guage to be more than upon the narrow guage." 



Mr. Stephenson subsequently gave his evidence to the effect 

 that the narrow guage afforded room for the construction of engines 

 of ample power for working any trains that might be required ; 

 and that the power of the engines would in future be limited by 

 the weight which the rails are capable of supporting. " We may 

 build," he says, "engines upon the wider guage no doubt heavier 

 and larger in dimensions and more powerful, but then you must 

 make a road to support it on purpose." And with reference to 

 the comparative speed on the broad and narrow guage, he says, 

 " Every day we are running upwards of fifty miles an hour with 

 our passenger trains, and those engines were not made with a 

 view to attaining a maximum speed, but such a speed as we 

 deemed then advisable to attain. We had never aimed to get 

 our passenger trains upon the narrow guage lines to run more 

 than 30 miles an hour, including stopages, therefore we had 

 rarely if ever attempted a wheel larger than five feet six inches in 

 diameter. On the North Midland I tried some of six feet 



diameter, and they are there constantly running 50 miles an hour. 

 * * * There is no difficulty whatever in making an engine 

 upon the narrow guage to take forty tons at sixty miles an hour, 

 not the least difficulty, or even more than that." Again he says, 

 " the wide guage engines are not more powerful, but they are 

 heavier in proportion to their power. It is quite clear that every 

 thing in the width of the engine, every thing that is to go across 

 from side to side, is giving the engine no power at all ; it is an 

 incumbrance rather than otherwise." And generally on the 

 comparative mechanical and commercial advantages of the two 

 systems he says, " I believe it (the wide guage) is inferior in both 

 ways. I believe it is less convenient because it requires larger 

 stations ; you are obliged to have a larger radius and more room 

 for your sidings : at least you ought to have to work with the 

 same facility. Commercially speaking, the advantage of the large 

 truck, I am convinced, in nine cases out of ten is not felt at all, 

 and in cases where the trucks are not filled and loaded to their 

 maximum it is a positive disadvantage to the Company, which 

 must fall upon the public eventually." 



To the question of the safety of the two guages, Mr. Stephenson 

 replies generally that, "As an abstract question I do not think 

 there can be any line of difference drawn between the one guage 

 and the other, in that respect they must be both alike." 



Of course such decided opinions in reference to this important 

 topic as were expressed by Mr. Stephenson, and which we have 

 briefly quoted, were not left unchallenged; the broad guage 

 interest, though comparatively small, had sufficient at stake in the 

 extension of its lines to urge its representatives to the refutation 

 of the arguments of its opponents, and Mr. Brunei, as the originator 

 of the seven feet guage, entered with confidence upon the defence 

 of his recommendation to the Great Western Company to adopt 

 that guage. In his evidence before the guage commissioners, 

 given subsequently to Mr. Stephenson's, he did not hesitate to 

 claim many advantages for the broad guage. " Looking," says 

 he, " to the speeds which I contemplated would be adopted on 

 railways, and to the masses to be moved, it seemed to me that 

 the whole machine was too small for the work to be done, and 

 that it required that the parts should be on a scale more commen- 

 surate with the mass and the velocity to be attained ;" and when 

 questioned as to whether his experience of the broad guage had at 

 all shaken his opinion of its advantages, he said, " I should rather 

 be above than under seven feet now, if I had to reconstruct the 

 lines." 



The basis on which Mr. Brunei appears to have founded these 

 opposite opinions to Mr. Stephenson appears to have been chiefly 

 the anticipation of largely increased traffic, and a belief that it 

 could be much more cheaply carried by stock of greater lateral 

 capacity, while engines of larger power could be made at a reduced 

 original cost for an equal amount of power, and that the power so 

 obtained could be more cheaply worked. " The first cost," says 

 he, " of the same amount of power is of course less in ten engines 

 than it will be in fifteen, if that were the proportion, but I look 

 rather upon it as to the efficiency of the result of the working of 

 the whole machine than a mere question of economy in the first 

 cost of the machinery, and taking the masses to be moved as 

 varying from 60 to 70 or 80 tons in cases of passenger trains, 

 and say 200 tons and 300 tons in cases of goods trains (and they 

 very much exceed that frequently) ; but taking those masses, and 

 taking the speeds to be what they will very shortly be, I have no 

 doubt 50 and 60 miles an hour for passenger trains, and 30 for 

 goods trains; I believe that, to carry those weights at those speeds 

 efficiently, it is better to have larger carriages, and larger waggons, 

 and larger wheels, and more powerful engines than those which 

 have hitherto been used." He then goes into the question of 



