138 
KAILWAY TRAVELLING AND ELECTRICITY 
By W. PREECE, C.E., 
OF THE TOST OFFICE TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT. 
PLATE CXXXIV. 
ERRIBLE railway accidents like that at Abbot’s Ripton 
excite the public interest with great intensity for periods 
of time varying witb the magnitude of the disaster, and the 
amount of other stirring events occurring simultaneously. 
There is no sensation greater than that of a severe railway acci- 
dent. It affects every one. We are all travellers by railway, and* 
self-interest makes us read with horror and dismay of the death 
of units in a railway train, while we pursue our breakfast with 
comparative calmness during the recital of hundreds smothered 
to death in a colliery explosion, or sent to eternity in a watery 
grave. The sensation is aggravated by the public press, which 
gives such prominence to every detail of what is called “ this 
railway butchery,” while it leaves unchronicled the terrible 
slaughter that occurs daily in our midst from other causes. There 
are more people killed every day by accident than are killed 
every year from causes beyond their own control on the railways 
of the United Kingdom ! Mr. John Bright said that a first-class 
carriage was the safest place to deposit oneself in, and a perusal 
of the following statistics will go far to support that opinion. 
In 1873 no less than 17,246 persons met with violent deaths 
in England and Wales, which is an average of 750 per million, 
or 1 in 1,354, or 47 per day. The causes of these deaths are 
thus analysed : — 
Table I. — Violent Deaths in England and Wales for the 
Year 1873. 
Cause of Death. 
Injuries in mines .... 
Mechanical injuries (not on railways or in mines) 
Chemical injuries .... 
Asphyxia ..... 
Violence (unclassified) .... 
Railways ..... 
990 
6,070 
2,784 
5,193 
919 
1,290 
