A PRACTICAL TEST

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1682, 8 October 1887, Page 2

A PRACTICAL TEST

The Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil lately gave audienoe to a young engineer who came to show him a new applianoa for stopping railway engines. The Emperor was pleased with the thing, and said, "We will put it at onoe to a practical test. The day after to-morrow have your engine ready j we will have it , coupled to my saloon carriage, and then ! fire away;. When going at full speed I 1 ffill unexpectedly give the signal to stop, and then we shall see how the apparatus works." At tbe appointed time the Emperor entered his carriage and the engineer mounted his engine, and on they went for a considerable distance, indeed, the young inventor began to suspect that the Emperor had fallen asleep, when the train suddenly came to a Bharp curve round tbe edge of a cliff, on turning which the driver saw to his horror an immense boulder lying on the rails. He had j tat sufficient presence of mind to turn the orank of his brake and pull up the engine within a couple of yards of the fatal block. Here tbe Emperor put his bead out of the window and asked what they were Btopiog for. They pointed to the piece of rock, on seeing which Dom Pedro burst into a merry laugh. "Pu?h the thing on one side ?" he called out to the engineer, who had jumped down from the locomotive ; and when the latter, m his confusion, blindly obeyed, and kicked the Btone with his foot, it crumbled into dust. It was a block of starch that Dom Pedro had ordered to be placed on the rails the night before.— "El Dia."