(National Prosperity Association of St. Louis.)
[PROGRESSIVE SAFETY IN RAILWAY OPERATION]
By A. H. Smith, Vice-President of the N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Co.
An Address Delivered Before the National Association of Railroad Commissioners, at their Annual Convention, held in Washington, D. C., November 16, 1909.
In examining into the state of an art of such far-reaching importance and such diversified nature as that of transportation by rail, it seems necessary to acquaint ourselves with its beginnings and growth; to determine the elements upon which its development relies and the necessity which has invoked the various steps of improvement in the plant devoted to transportation and the art of employing and controlling it in the performance of a public service.
The lay observer will scarcely appreciate, in the absence of the actual analysis, that there exists so many branches of this subject, each branch of which, by itself, may be considered the object of a separate professional science and a distinct human industry.
EARLY RAILROAD HISTORY.
Railways had their origin in tramways laid over 200 years ago in the mineral districts of England, which conveyed coal to the sea. Animal motive power was used. By the discovery, in 1814, of the adhesion of a smooth wheel to a smooth rail, it became possible to consider the employment of the tractive power of a rolling locomotive, and for some time subsequent to this, to the trial trip of the "Rocket," in 1829, which may be described as the first successful steam locomotive, the experiments were along these lines.