Public safety

Following a succession of accidents to fast railway trains last winter, statements were made that the public demanded the highest possible speed. This might be modified by adding the words “consistent with safety.” Another important requirement is the maintenance of the advertised schedule, so that the traveler may plan his journey with a reasonable possibility of making the necessary connections. There are many reasonable excuses for delay. An open drawbridge is one of them. The adoption of electricity as a motive power makes it feasible to utilize tunnels to a greater extent than has heretofore been desirable, and bridges will no doubt be superseded by them, where the traffic warrants the change. Every precaution is being taken to guard against disaster upon the many subterranean lines now in operation, as well as those which are to be installed in the near future, but there is well-founded apprehension that the people are confronted with the possibility of a frightful disaster, which human foresight cannot always guard against. Single lives are daily being sacrificed without attracting comment; but when a number are killed and wounded the accident becomes a catastrophe, and if due to carelessness or neglect there is at once an unreasonable clamor, which frequently passes away without leading to any important improvement in conditions. The electrical engineer is now an important factor in every branch of industrial progress. The makeshift policy of pioneer days has been supplanted with a demand for the best possible construction. As an industry develops, better methods are introduced, and the general interchange of ideas, the criticism of proposed departures from current practice, should lead to continual improvement. The convention season now passing has been unusually active. No epoch-making invention has been brought out, but every department of electrical industry has shown an advance that is in the direction of public convenience, economy, an- safety.