LESSON OF THE REVERE RAILROAD ACCIDENT.
During the first two years after it was invented, the Westinghouse brake made slow progress into practical application, except in the West. In the ancient State of Massachusetts, it was hardly known till the Revere accident happened near Boston. This was the case of a crowded road being operated without signals or brakes, except those of the most primitive description. A fast express train ran into the rear end of an accommodation train, killing twenty-nine persons, and severely injuring fifty-seven others. The engineer of the express train, while running at a speed of twenty-five miles an hour, saw the tail lights of the accommodation train when he was eight hundred feet away. He whistled for brakes, and reversed his engine; but the train could not be stopped.
The railroad superintendents throughout the conservative State of Massachusetts then received enlightenment respecting the existence of an efficient continuous brake in a vigorous fashion. The Revere accident conveyed its lessons in a terrible way, but they were effectual in convincing railroad managers that they could not afford to dispense with a brake that proved itself to be reliable.