14 Continuous Rmlway Breaks . [January, 
regarding this break before the Royal Commission without 
at once coming to the conclusion that in operation, both in 
this country and in America, its working has been all that 
could be desired. Besides possessing all the advantages of 
other continuous breaks, it can claim others which are not 
common to the latter. By no means an unimportant pro- 
perty of the Westinghouse automatic break is that its 
normal position is such as to apply the break-blocks to all 
the wheels of a train, so that the breaks have to be taken 
off by the driver before starting, and any defeCt in the 
mechanism would make itself at once known by the breaks 
refusing to be taken off in the ordinary manner. Thus 
infallible evidence is always given on the first starting of a 
train that the break gear is throughout in working order, — 
matter of no small importance so far as security in travel- 
ling is concerned. Another consequence of the automatic 
action of this break is, that if a train were broken into as 
many pieces as carriages, each carriage would be stopped by 
the self-aCting application of the break upon its wheels. 
Also, the break can be applied by the guards as well as by 
the engine-driver, without the necessity of ropes or other 
extraneous appliances foreign to the mechanism of the break 
itself. 
A description of the experiments conducted, with the 
several kinds of break in operation on different railways, by 
the Royal Commission, is given in Appendix F to their 
Report. From this some further very important particulars 
may be obtained relative to the comparative efficiency of the 
various continuous breaks at present in operation. Besides 
the general principles of their construction and application, 
their relative values must depend upon the results obtained 
from them in aCtual practice, and in calculating these several 
considerations must be kept in view ; for instance, the speed 
with which the full force of the break can be applied ; the 
mean retarding forces operating in each case ; the distance 
within which a stop is effected ; and the time necessary for 
taking off the break again — are all subjects of importance 
which must be taken into account in determining the relative 
values of different kinds of breaks. 
In examining these several points it will not be necessary 
to review the results of experiments made with ordinary 
hand-breaks, as they are clearly so insufficient for the re- 
quirements of traffic at the present day that they may fairly 
be left out of consideration altogether. As regards the time 
occupied in the transmission of break-power through the 
trains, and in releasing breaks, the conditions under which 
