142 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Nature of Accident. 
1870. | 
1871. 
1872. 
1873. 
1874. 
From engines or vehicles meeting with, or 
leaving the rails in consequence of, ob- 
structions, or from defects in connection 
with the permanent way or works . 
9 
19 
21 
24 
18 
From boiler explosions, failures of axles, 
wheels, tyres, or from other defects in 
the rolling stock ..... 
10 
22 
17 
23 
13 
From trains entering stations at too great 
speed 

2 
7 
5 

From collisions between engines and trains 
following one another on the same line 
of rails, excepting at junctions, stations, 
or sidings 
61 
9 
22 
18 
9 
From collisions at junctions 
18 
19 
32 
20 
22 
From collisions within fixed signals at 
stations or sidings, &c 
Included 
in the 
above 61 . 
63 
91 
98 
75 
From collisions between trains, &c., meeting 
in opposite directions .... 
3 
2 
5 
3 
6 
From collisions at level crossings of two 
railways 
1 


3 
1 
From passenger trains being wrongly run 
or turned into sidings, or otherwise 
through facing points .... 
14 
12 
11 
34 
36 
17 
On inclines 
6 
9 
11 
7 
Miscellaneous 
9 
12 
8 
6 
— 
131 
171 
246 
247 
168 
make a mistake? In the year 1874, 4,400,000 letters out of 
967,000,000, or one in 220, found their way to the Returned 
Letter Office. 89,540 undelivered letters contained valuables, 
and bank-notes, bills, &c., the value of which alone amounted 
to 565,000£. ; 337 of these had no addresses ; 61,000 postage 
stamps were found loose in the different post-offices, and 20,000 
letters were posted without any address at all. 
How then is the comparative safety of railway travelling 
produced? By taking advantage of the lessons taught by 
experience, and by applying the means suggested by scientific 
thought and inventive skill to remedy defects. Failure has 
thus led to improvement. Every accident has been a lesson 
learnt, and bitterly have those suffered who have not profited 
by such writings on the wall. The particulars evidenced by 
each accident have been carefully and systematically recorded 
in the reports of the inspecting officers of the Board of Trade, 
and thus by recording past experience the materials are col- 
lected for carefully generalizing the laws of railway working and 
for establishing a true science of steam locomotion. 
Telegraphy, or the art of conveying information by certain 
preconcerted signals to the ear and to the eye, is the chief aid 
