io Continuous Railway Breaks. [January, 
far as the evidence concerning them respectively given 
before the Royal Commission seems to indicate their weak 
points. 
2. The Hydraulic Break.— Barker’s hydraulic break, which 
is the representative of this class of break, was applied to 
the engine and the whole of the passenger carriages of an 
experimental train ; but the tender and two vans were fitted 
with breaks worked by hand-power. The hydraulic appa- 
ratus, as used at the trials, consisted of the following 
parts On the engine there was a double-aCting steam- 
accumulator, consisting of a large-sized cylinder with a 
piston in it connected with a plunger working in a second 
cylinder, which was kept filled with water from the tender- 
tank. The piston in the former was actuated by pressure 
direCt from the boiler, without the use of any pump, and in 
making its stroke the plunger in the smaller cylinder was 
made to force water, with any degree of pressure, into pipes 
leading to small hydraulic rams attached to the engine and 
carriage breaks. These pipes led the whole length of the 
train, the connections between the carriages being made 
with india-rubber hose furnished with ordinary unions. 
Each carriage was fitted with two of the hydraulic 
cylinders and rams just mentioned, and these were con- 
nected direCtly to the break-blocks in such a manner that 
on the ram of each cylinder being moved by the pressure of 
water from the accumulator, the break-blocks on one side 
of the pair of wheels to which the ram belonged were forced 
against the wheels, while the pressure of water against the 
bottom of the same cylinder caused it to recoil, as it were, 
and draw the tension-rods of the break-blocks on the other 
side of the pair of wheels, thus clipping each wheel between 
its two blocks. In this arrangement, of course, the cylin- 
ders attached to the break-blocks have to be loosely sus- 
pended, and free to move horizontally for a distance nearly 
equal to the length of the arms. This description answers 
also for the aCtion of the engine-breaks. By reverse aCtion 
in the accumulator the pressure in the break cylinders can 
be relieved, and the blocks taken off from the wheels. The 
amount of pressure in the pipes can be regulated by a 
reducing valve ; also, in order to keep the power always 
ready for immediate use, it is an essential part of this 
system that the pipes and cylinders throughout the train 
should be always full of water. The breaks were not 
arranged so that they would be self-adting in case of a train 
parting asunder. 
The testimony given in favour of this break by those who 
