EATLWAY COMMUNICATION. 
473 
of each, passenger the power of signalling the stoppage of the 
trains and the existence of a means of communication between 
the carriages^ through which assistance can be ajBTorded whilst 
the train is in motion. Assuming this means of communication 
to exists the question arises_, what are the conditions, the ful- 
filment of which must be regarded as indispensable in any 
system of signals. The least that can be required seems to 
us to be that every passenger shall have ready access to a 
signal, the action of which will warn the guard and at the 
same time display some distinguishing sign to serve as a 
guide to the compartment whence the signal proceeded. 
Upon the arrival of the guard, he certainly ought to have, on 
the spot, the means of signalling to the engine-driver to stop, 
should it be necessary, without losing time by traversing back 
to the end of the train. Supposing, then, the means of 
signalling to the engine-driver, as well as to the guard, to exist 
in every compartment, the question arises whether it might 
not be desh-able to entrust the use of both signals to the 
discretion of the passengers ; thus giving them power either 
to call the guard simply, or tell the driver to stop and call the 
guard at the same time ; that in urgent cases, such as the 
breaking of a spring, or an axle, or a carriage getting off the 
line, the time lost in summoning the guard, as a necessary 
preliminary to warning the engine-driver, might be saved. 
We know that a great prejudice exists against committing the 
power of stopping a train to the hands of passengers, but we 
do not share in this prejudice. We have a higher opinion of 
the discretion and common sense of our countrymen, and 
believe when the experiment is tried — as tried it assuredly 
will be — these predictions of stoppages for trifles and conse- 
quent loss of time will be signally falsified by the result. 
In consequence of the interest exhibited by the public in 
the subject, and specially by her Majesty, as evinced by her 
letter to railway directors on railway accidents, the managers 
of the Polytechnic Institution determined to open an exhibi- 
tion of inventions designed to promote the safety of railway 
travelling, and accordingly issued an invitation to all inventors 
to send their models or drawings to be exhibited in their 
collection. Much surprise ‘has been expressed by many of 
the public who have visited it and examined the drawings and 
models referring to the subject of communication between the 
passengers and the guard, at the paucity of invention displayed, 
both in the small number of plans sent in for exhibition and 
the small amount of ingenuity which characterized the assem- 
blage as a whole. The result, however, is perfectly intelligible 
to the initiated and such as might have been expected. 
Supposing a crotchety old man entertained an objection to 
