THE QUARTERLY 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
JANUARY, 1878, 
I. CONTINUOUS RAILWAY BREAKS, 
By Fred, Chas. Danvers, 
f HE Report recently issued by the Royal Commission 
on Railway Accidents brings very prominently to 
notice the fadt that the break-power at present ordi- 
narily applied to passenger-trains is inefficient, and that to 
this fadt is due the occurrence of many accidents which, by 
the application of better mechanical contrivances, might 
have been avoided. Former Committees and Commissions 
appointed by the Legislature to enquire into the subject of 
railway accidents have generally in their reports assumed 
that the principle of self-interest, in its influence on Railway 
Companies, should be relied on as the best safeguard against 
accidents ; that the liability of the Companies to pay a 
serious amount in compensation in individual cases was a 
strong inducement to railway directors to work the line 
carefully, the Companies having thus a diredt pecuniary 
interest in keeping their lines safe. These assumptions 
have not been borne out by subsequent experience. One of 
the members of the late Royal Commission, in a separate 
report, has shown to what extent the self-interest of Railway 
Companies has any practical bearing on the subjedt, and, in 
order to make the matter more clear, he has deduced from 
the expenditure returns made by Companies to the Board 
of Trade the following figures, which represent an average 
VOL, VIII, (N.s.) B 
