14^ WORK AT OAKFIELD. 



line was covered by the remains of the cow. It was 

 supposed that if the full speed had been maintained the 

 engine would have crushed the obstacle, a large bone, 

 which had arrested its progress. James was astonished 

 when he saw the engine men eating their dinner with as 

 much sang-froid as though nothing had happened, while 

 the passengers were in a state of the utmost terror. An 

 officer in charge of soldiers was so much excited, that he 

 was brandishing his sword in an adjacent field. The 

 carriage which James had occupied was tumbled down the 

 embankment to get it out of the way. Three persons were 

 killed. James was studying a mathematical book at the 

 time, and when we arrived at home we found the pages 

 which he had open were covered with pulverized glass." 



This accident made Joule very nervous in travelling by 

 railway for a long time, and in consequence he declined to 

 be again nominated as a member of the Council of the 

 Royal Society. He was in the Isle of Man in the summer, 

 and at the British Association in Leeds, in September. On 

 December 30th, Joule's father died, having been unwell 

 for some years. 



At this time Joule was hard at work in his laboratory 

 at Oakfield. The Brewery in Salford, where he, with Sir 

 William Thomson, had made the experiments on the 

 thermal effects of fluid in motion in 1853, being sold in 

 1854, he had his steam engine and appliances removed to 

 Oakfield, and what could not be placed in the laboratory, he 

 worked with in the open. Of Joule's work, Mr. B. St. J. 

 B. Joule writes: "My brother was at Whalley Range 

 (Oakfield) very busy with his experiments, many of which 

 were decidedly dangerous owing to the pressure he made 

 use of. During this period, for some months he could not 



