BEARING ON RAILWAYS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 17, 20 May 1871, Page 5

BEARING ON RAILWAYS.

It appears from the returns furnished by the Board of Trade that the total number of persons killed on railways in the United "Kingdom last year was 286, and the total number of injured 1,239. In 1869 the numbers were—killed, 321; injured, 1231. Sixty-six passengers were killed, and 1084 injured from causes beyond their own control; and 24 were killed and 10 injured by their own misconduct or want of caution. The number of servants of railway companies or contractors killed and injured from causes beyond their own control was 25 and 118 respectively. Of the same class of persons, 90 were killed and 11 injured by their own misconduct or recklessness. Seventeen persons were killed and three injured at level crossings. The number of trespassers killed was 59, and nine injured. The total number of collisions and other accidents to passenger trains was 124, and by these 79 persons (65 of them passengers) were killed, and 1194 (1084 of whom were passengers) injured. The number of accidents to goods and mineral trains was eight, and by these nine railway servants were killed and six injured. The total number of accidents to all trains was 132 ; the total number of persons killed by them 88, and the total number of injured, 1,200.

It is some small satisfaction to know, remarks the “ Lancet,” that railway companies do not maim, mutilate, and kill their passengers gratuitously. During the past year a total sum of £333,715 was expended by railway companies in the United Kingdom as compensation for personal injury,—of which the Great Northern paid £28,000; the Great Western, £20,000 ; the Lancashire and Yorkshire, £19,380; the Midland, £24,988; the London and North-Western, £73,804 ; and the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway, £47,457. It would be interesting, but impossible to collect particulars as to the injuries inflicted upon their victims, whose hurts are supposed to have been healed by the application of more than a quarter of a million of money. A question of vast importance to the railway travelling public has been the subject of discussion by the Manchester Literary and Scientific Society. Mr W. Brockbank, having read a paper descriptive of experiments made to test “ the effects of cold upon the strength of iron,” drew conclusions, certainly in accordance with popular opinion, but opposed to all that is scientifically known, respecting the influence of temperature on metals, to the effect “ that bar iron, rails, &c, are most materially weakened

by the action of intense coldand hence his inference that railway companies are relieved from all responsibility in the case of an accident such as occurred on the Great Northern Kailway by the breaking of a tyre during the frost, occasioning death and injury to many persons. This communication was subsequently followed by papers from Sir William Fairbaim, Dr. J. P. Joule, and Mr Peter Spence, giving the results of their well-devised experiments. Their conclusions were so similar that they cannot be better expressed than in the words of Dr. Joule : —“ Frost does not make either iron (cast or wrought) or steel brittle ; and accidents arise from the neglect of the companies to submit wheels, axles, and all other parts of their rolling stock to a practical and sufficient test before using them.”