586 Original Articles. [Oct., 



2. Sight signals for day and night on the different carriages, 

 independently of sound. These signals have also the advantage of 

 requiring no extra coupling between the carriages, but a servant of 

 the company must always be specially on the look-out for them. 



The system of employing a travelling porter or look-out man was 

 advocated for many years, and employed with some trains, by the 

 Great Western Company ; and the look-out box which was constructed 

 at the back of the tender for his accommodation, must be familiar to 

 all who have been in the habit of travelling on that line. But there 

 have been several accidents, including the two above referred to, in 

 which the travelling porter, much required, was not forthcoming. 

 And there are many disadvantages attending such a system. It is 

 difficult to keep a staff of men on different trains always carefully on 

 the look-out for what is very seldom seen, and expensive to employ 

 them for this sole purpose. They would be unable to see along the 

 trains, or to distinguish any signals made to them, during fogs or in 

 the steam and smoke of tunnels. The engine-drivers and firemen 

 have quite enough to do in attending to the engine and looking out 

 ahead, and it would be in the highest degree dangerous to make them 

 responsible for watching at the same time the carriages behind them. 

 The guard or guards have letters, parcels, and luggage to sort and 

 look after, and cannot be expected to keep a constant look-out on the 

 journey. 



It has frequently been proposed to place mirrors in various posi- 

 tions on the engine or in the breakvans, in which the whole train 

 shall be reflected, for the benefit of either the engine-driver or the 

 guards, or both ; and the experiment was tried in France, on the 

 Montpellier a Cette railway. There has been a further scheme for 

 providing systems of mirrors, by which the interior of every compart- 

 ment of every carriage in a train should be rendered always visible 

 from the vans of the guards. But these mirrors would require to be 

 frequently cleaned on the journey. Either at the side of the engine 

 or at that of the van they would extend, if of any use, to an incon- 

 venient distance. None of the servants of the company could be 

 expected to be constantly looking into them ; and a system of supervision 

 which rendered the interiors of the different compartments constantly 

 visible to persons who could not be seen from them would, even if it 

 could be rendered suitable for adoption in practice, be disagreeable to 

 passengers of both sexes. 



The French Commission before referred to remark with regard to 

 the above two classes of signals : — " Les n 08 2, 3, 14, 24, consistent 

 des appareils visuels ou sonores places sur les voitures des voyageurs. 

 Nous demontrons que leurs signaux visuels ne seraient point vus, que 

 leurs signaux sonores ne seraient point entendus." 



3. Apparatus worked by the revolving axles of any of the vehicles 

 of a train. These, whether air-pumps, or magnetic, or other arrange- 

 ments, require to be adjusted to extreme variations of speed, and are 

 useless when the wheels are skidded by breaks, in slackening speed, 

 or in descending steep inclines. There are difficulties also in arrang- 

 ing most of the apparatus so as effectually to communicate both 



