MEDICAL OBJECTIONS TO TUBE TRAVELLING
But apart from accidents and breakdowns, a terrible indictment is brought against tube railways in general, and the Central London in particular, which, if true, constitutes a veritable drawback. The accuser is Dr. L. C. Parkes, Medical Officer of Health for Chelsea, who says: “Tube railways are still such a comparative novelty, that the question of the healthiness of this mode of travel has not yet been fully determined. Dr. Wynter Blyth, in an address a year ago, gave the results of some experiments on the ventilation and condition of the atmosphere in the tubes and stations of the Central London Railway. The chief cause of the movements of air in the tubes and stations, lifts and stairways, is the passage of the trains along the tubes, which the carriages nearly fill, thus acting as a piston in a cylinder, driving air before them and sucking it in from behind in their progress from one station to another. The condition of the atmosphere, was not excessively foul, the largest amount of CO ascertained to be present, being 11·9 parts per 10,000 vols. This sample was taken in a carriage containing twenty-seven people between the Lancaster Gate and Marble Arch Stations. The amount of CO present in the air of the station’s lifts and stairways varied between 8 and 11 parts per 10,000. In no case, then, did Dr. Wynter Blyth find the amount of CO in the air of the tube to be more than three times the amount usually present in the outer atmosphere of the London streets (average 4 parts per 10,000). Contrasted with the tunnel of the Metropolitan Railway between Gower Street and King’s Cross Stations, where a sample of the air taken showed that CO was present to the extent of 25·9 parts per 10,000, the air of the tube railway is comparatively pure.”
Dr. Parkes continues: “It may be safely asserted that constant travelling day after day, even if only for a limited period each day, in an atmosphere containing 15 to 20 parts per 10,000 of CO, such CO being derived solely from a human source, must eventually tend to injure health. There are two other dangers in tube-travelling which require notice. First, the danger in the warm summer and the cold winter months alike of bodily chill. In the hot weather the traveller passes suddenly from the warm street into a much colder atmosphere below the ground level. In the winter the reverse happens—the passenger who has been warmed and enervated by the devitalised air below meets the chilly wintry blast on emerging into the street. Secondly, the air of the tube being very dry, and constantly in movement, there must be much organic dust of human origin floating in it. The dangers of tubercular expectoration are no doubt intensified in such a dry and shifting atmosphere as that of the tube, and the cautionary notices to prevent spitting are wisely exhibited in every carriage.”
On the whole, Dr. Parkes favours open air to other methods of travelling. He recommends that as far as possible travelling should be by routes open to the air of heaven.
CHAPTER XX
SOME ELECTRIC LOCOMOTION DRAWBACKS (continued)
TRAMWAY ACCIDENTS
WHEN the Chiswick High Road tram-line was being made the tradesmen petitioned the London County Council against it. They complained of the annoyance as well as of the danger of the trams. They said that the trams, being large (carrying seventy people in all) and running on eight wheels, made considerably more noise than the light horse-car; that the motor was not silent, and the progress of the trolley along the shivering overhead wire made a continuous, most unmusical, and penetrating din; while the brake—of necessity powerful—also had a harsh note quite its own. To this was added the noise and flash of electric sparks and a singularly sonorous and imperative bell in place of the usual whistle; and as the cars came along every two and a half minutes in each direction, they who dwelt along the route did not find them altogether lovely.
Some people maintain that electric trams are not merely unlovely, but are decidedly dangerous to travel in. There have been electric tram accidents, of course, and very serious ones. For instance, at Huddersfield, one June night in 1902, a car, as it approached the town and was half-way down an incline of a mile in length, got out of control. The trolley arm left the wire, plunging the conveyance into darkness. By this time the pace of the car was too great to permit of anyone getting off. It went whizzing past the car standing in the next loop; but failing to negotiate a sharp curve at the bottom of Somerset Road, ran straight across the street, smashing the pavement and dashing with great force into a grocer’s shop, the wooden front of which collapsed. The front of the car was also driven in. Three persons were killed and six seriously injured.
At Chatham a catastrophe, resulting in four deaths and many injuries, is still fresh in people’s minds. It occurred on October 30th, 1902, and was extraordinary in many respects, the tram being completely wrecked. The Chatham and District Light Railway is worked as an electric tramway on the overhead trolley system, and has been in operation about twelve months. The scene of the mishap was at the foot of Westcourt Street, Old Brompton, in the parish of Gillingham, close to the main entrance to Chatham Dockyard, where there is a very steep gradient. A workmen’s car, filled with mechanics and labourers on their way to work, suddenly bolted in descending the hill, notwithstanding that the brakes had been duly applied. The weight of the heavily laden vehicle increased the velocity every yard of the way, and a terrific pace was obtained.
There is a sharp curve in the railway at the end of the road. The passengers screamed as they realised their danger. The driver shouted to them to jump off the car, which many did; and the driver and conductor themselves took a leap for their lives, and thus avoided serious injury. As anticipated, the curve proved fatal to the safety of the car. The heavy vehicle toppled over on its side with a terrific crash, and the passengers, projected in all directions, made a confused heap in the highway.