The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-10-26 00:00:00

DREADFUL RAILWAY COLLISION.

A serious accident occurred on Saturday afternoon
on the Taff Vale Railway, some few hundred yards
from Pontypridd Junction, where the Cowbridge,
Treherbert, and Cardiff Lines diverge, the con-
sequences of which are that twelve persons
are dead, and about thirty seriously wounded.
The Taff line has always been remarkable for
the strict punctuality of all its trains, and it has been
generally regarded as a model railway. Until this
accident the line had enjoyed an entire immunity
from mishaps of this character, and it has now been
working some 36 or 37 years. The following parti-
culars of the accident are given :
Shortly after four o'clock the passenger train from
Cowbridge came into the junction, and the passengers
alighted. The driver afterwards proceeded up the
line to shunt an empty train, which was being pushed
by the engine, when the Treherbert train came down
the Rhondda 'Valley, at a Booed of from eight to ten
miles an hour, towards the Pontypridd station, which
would be about 400 yards distant. When it was about
half-way over the North Junction rails, the empty
train, which was shunting back, struck it inthe centre.
A frightful scene ensued. The middle part of the
passenger train was composed as usual of third-class
carriages, a number of which, and more especially
the empty ones, were shattered like match boxes.
Neither the engine drivers nor their engines were
touched, but the brake man of the empty train had
a most remarkable escape. His van was hurled against
the rock bounding the cutting, but an angle in the
cutting prevented the carriage from crushing him,
and he crawled through an aperture comparatively
unhurt. The passeng,er train was a very long one, a
great number of colliers and market people being on
their way to Pontypridd, which is the principal town
in the neighbourhood. Altogether there were some
300 persons in the train. Communications were at
once made to the local doctors, and telegrams were
sent to Cardiff aaquainting the head officials of the
disaster, and at the latter-named place several doctors
were also requisitioned. Mr. Fisher, chief engineer, Mr.
Hurman, traffic manager, and others proceeded to the
scene of the disaster by special train, while Dr. Vachell
Dr. Hardyman, and Dr. Fred. Evans followed in
another special. In the meantime the dead and
wounded had been removed by the company's officials
and various willing helpers from the debris, and
conveyed to the Pontypridd Union Hospital. Valuable
assistance was rendered by Drs. Hopkins, Leckie,
Vachell, Dixon, and Rees, of Pontypridd. and
also by Dr. Davies, who came over from Portia
with a staff of assistants. Ten dead bodies
were laid out in the workhouse for identification.
A arge body of county police, under Superintendent
Mathews, were on duty at the approaches to the
rooms where the injured were placed in beds, and
their injuries attended to by the surgeons and
nurses. Several of the cases were found to be
very critical. Mr. C. H. Williams, one of the com-
pany's directors, was on the spot, and he directed
that every attention should be given to all the suf-
ferers, some of whom remained in different parts of
Pontypridd, in private houses or hotels. Everything
was done by the company's officials to mitigate as far
as possible the sadness of the disaster. Twenty beds
were prepared at the Cardiff Infirmary, but very few
chose to be taken there.
As usual, there were some very narrow escapes.
Mr. Fraser, of Merthyr, was in a compartment where
two passengers were killed, and the partition came
close up to his knees and pinned him, but he
escaped unhurt. The mineral agent of Lord
Bute—Mr. W. Lewis, of Aberdare—was in the
first-class carriage directly in front of the one that
was struck. He escaped with a mere shaking. Many
persons who were sitting facing the engine of the pas-
senger train escaped without hurt, while those sitting
opposite them were killed or injured. Many of the
unhurt survivors do not know how they got out of the
train. The injured and dead are mostly of the collier
class.
Among the killed was an old telegraph clerk,
named Clarke. Since the introduction of the present
telegraph system he had been engaged on the Rhondda
line to deal with private messages by the railway
wires. On Saturday morning he was conversing
with Mr. Hurman, traffic manager, at that gentle-
man's office. Clarke asked Mr. Hurman if he would
be coming out on Sunday, to which the latter replied
he had a bad cold, and did not think he could. "Well,"
said Clarke, "nothing but a collision would bring you
out." The poor man was killed not long afterwards.
About the time of the accident, Mr. Fisher, the
general manager, of the company, was at Penarth,
speaking at the banquet to Lord Windsor, who has
recently come of age; and he was congratulating the
company on the marvellous success of the line,
branches of which run into Penarth, with passenger
and mineral traffic.

An eye-witness has made the following statement :
"I was going along the Rhondda-road a little after four
on Saturday afternoon when the Rhondda train passed,
and immediately afterwards I heard alearful crash.
Looking round I saw splinters flying in all directions,
and I, with a friend who was with me, ran back. We
took a ladder, and went up on the line, and saw that the
Cowbridge train had shunted into the Rhondda train,
cutting it right in two, one part going on with the en-
gine and the other standing on the line. Two of tha
Rhondda carriages were smashed, the wheel of the
guard van of the Cowbridge being embedded as it were
in the carriage. My friend pulled open the doors and
got into the carriages, when a fearful spectacle met his
gage, the dead and dying lying in a mass on the floor.
In one compartment lay a man whose head, on lifting
him up, fell in two; and in an adjoining compart-
ment was a woman who was decapitated. By this
time other assistance had arrived, and the wounded
were removed to houses adjacent to the scene of the
disaster."

The following is a list of the killed, all of whom
resided in the district: Evan Owen Davis, tailor and
draper; David Thomas, Baptist student; John Jones,
collier; Thomas P. Clarke, telegraph lineman; Sarah
Thomas, married; Phcebe Jones, married; David
Davis, grocer; David Lloyd, mason; John Davis,
collier; Jeremiah Parry, collier ; Mary Ann Jones,
wife of the above; and Mr. Rattingan, of Pontypridd.
Mr. Swaine, who had both of his legs broken, lies in
a very precarious condition, and is not likely to
recover. There are several others also, of whom but
faint hopes are entertained.
This accident, following closely, as it has done, the
late disaster at Abercarne, caused the most profound
distress in the district. The circumstance was very
feelingly referred to in most of the churches and places
of worship in Cardiff, Merthyr, and Pontypridd on
Sunday evening.

CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE.
(From Monday's Times:)
A clean sweep having been made by the end of last
week of all the plant and appliances employed in the
erection of Cleopatra's Needle, the artisans from the
South Kensington Museum, who are engaged under
Mr. Bullen, and by the instructions of Major Festing,
in taking plaster casts of the obelisk, which are to be
in duplicate, are now the only occupants of the en-
closure at the Adelphi Steps.
It was hoped that the casting operations would be
finished before Lord Mayor's Day, so that the old
Pharaonic monument might be seen free from all ob-
structions on the passing of the procession along the
Thames Embankment. Judging, however, from the
present rate of progress this can hardly be the case.
It has been noticed by many, and during the opera-
tions of the moulders the pedestal has been draped,
and this circumstance may have helped to foster the
notion that the great civic festival would be chosen as
the occasion for the unveiling of its inscriptions. This
is to protect it from the dropping of the plaster.
In point of fact, it is doubtful whether there will be
any public unveiling at all, and it is certain that as yet
there are no inscriptions on the pedestal. Nor can
there be until the order shall have gone forth from the
Metropolitan Board of Works to affix in their places
the bronze plates bearing them. The text, prepared
by the co•operation of such scholars as Dr. Birch and
Dean Stanley, and approved by her Majesty, having
been brought before that body at its first meeting after
the autumnal recess, was referred to a committee of
that body, upon whose report action will be taken in
due course. Facing the roadway the inscription reads
thus:—
This obelisk was quarried at Syene, and erected at On
(Helipolis), by Thotbmes 111., about 1500 B.C. Further
, Inscriptions were added two centuries later by RalneSeß 11.
(Sesostris). Removed to Alexandria, the Royal City of
Cleopatra, it was erected there in the seventh year of
Augustus Caesar, BC. 23. Transported to England and
erected on this spot in the Forty-second year of Queen
Victoria, by Erasmus Wilson, 1.R.5., and John Dixon, C.E.
In the course of masonry next below this panel (the
third or middle course, which is much broader than
the others), it is proposed to engrave very deeply in
the granite, and in very large figures, the date 1878.
For the panel of the top step on the same side the
inscription reads :
"The work was farther aided by H H. Ismael Pacha
Ticeroy of Egypt, Gen. Sir J. E. Alexander, John Fowler,
CE, Hon. C. H. Vivian, Benjamin Baker, C.E., Giovanni
Demetrio, H. P. Stephenson C.E., Charles Swinburne, Wayn-
man Dixon, C.E., S. Birch, 'LL.D., George Double, Manager
of Works."
Facing the river the principal inscription reads:—
This obelisk, having fallen prostrate in the sand at
Alexandria, was in grateful remembrance of Nelson and
Abercromby, presented to the British nation, A.D. 1819, by
Mohammed Ali, Viceroy of Egypt. Encased in an iron
cylinder it was rolled into the sea August 29, 1877. Aban-
doned in a storm in the Bay of Biscay, it was recovered and
taken into Ferrol harlsour, whence, in charge of Captain
Carter, it reached the Thames, January 20, 1878."
The inscription for the panel of the top step on the
same side is :
"William Asken, Michael Burns, James Gardiner. William
Donald, Joseph Benbow, William Patan, perished in a
brave attempt to succour the crew of the obelisk ship
Cleopatra during the storm, October 14, 1877."
It is expected that on the panels on the east and
west sides of the pedestal will be placed bronze plates
representing respectively the obelisk ship Cleopatra
and the elevation of the monolith.
Professor Erasmus Wilson, F.R.S., has handed to
Mr. John Dixon, C.E., a cheque for £lO,OOO in re-
demption of his munificent pledge to pay him that
sum on the erection of Cleopatra's Needle on the
banks of the Thames.

THE LOSS OF THE QUEEN ANNE
STEAMER.
A Lloyd's telegram states that advices from Calcutta to
hand furnish the first detailed account of the loss of
the steamer Queen Anne, from Calcutta to Loudon, briefly
notified by telegraph from Calcutta on September 25:—
The steamer in going down the Hooghly, on
September 24, grounded whilst in charge of the
assistant harbour-master at College Sand, Garden
Reach, and floated again at 10 p.m. In endeavour-
ing to regain a berth in the fairway she collided with
the wall of the ex-King of Oude's palace. Divers
were employed, and the vessel being found
uninjured, proceeded: bat whilst going down
in pilot's charge she grounded on the Fultah Sand,
September 26, 8.15 a.m., and immediately capsized.
She has, it is feared, bosome a total loss. A. pas-

senger, who was being sent home insane, and a boy
are supposed to have been lost. It is also feared that
some of the native crew may have been lost, but
nothing is yet certainly known on this head. The
remainder of the crew were saved with difficulty,
having been forced to hold on by the sides and rigging
of the vessel until taken off by the tug Columbia,
which landed them at Calcutta.
The vessel had on board a valuable cargo of East
Indian produce, consisting principally of tea, jute,
linseed, saltpetre, tobacco, and buffalo horns.

THE ELECTRIC LIGHT IN THE CITY
OF LONDON.
At a meeting of the City of London Commissioners
of Sewers on Tuesday afternoon, the principal busi-
ness before them was a report of the Streets Committee
on the reference to them of the sth of March last as to
how far the electric light might be applicable for light-
ing the public streets. In a lengthy report, occupying
over 40 printed sheets, Colonel Haywood, the engineer to
the COMMillBiol3, describes some inquiries which be has
made into what has been recently done in the use of
electric light, such inquiries having been made prin-
cipally in Paris, where that mods, of illumination is
more extensively employed than elsewhere. Although,
he says, the Commission was mainly concerned in the
suitability of the light for public ways, it represented
a community immensely interested in obtaining an
efficient light for the purposes of trade and commerce.
No section of the metropolitan community was, in-
deed, more interested ; for within the City of London
the Gas Light and Coke Company gathered a
rental of £370,000 per annum. Colonel Haywood
then described in detail the Jablochkoff process,
and states its use in the public ways and theatres
of Paris, in Monaco, St. Petersburg, Madrid, and
elsewhere. He observed that the advantages claimed
for the light are that colours can as well been seen
by it as by daylight, that scarcely any heat is given
off by it, that the products of combustion are harm-
less, that there is no chance of fire or explosion by its
use, and that the lighting and extinguishing are auto-
matic and instantaneous. Colonel Haywood himself
agrees with all these points, but makes some technical
objections to the burners used. He refers in detail
to the question of cost, stating that there are very
great differences of opinion as to the relative
economy of the two classes of light. No doubt
there were immense interests at stake on the ques-
tion, which might warp the judgment of many and
render the truth somewhat difficult to arrive at, but
the balance of testimony seemed to him to be only in
favour of the economy of the electric light when the
conditions were very favourable to its use. The light,
was, of course, well adapted for lighthouses, for carry-
ing out large building operations at night, and for
various other special purposes. Colonel Haywood
next passed to the consideration of using the electric
light for lighting the public ways of the City;
and, after going into details observed that, looking
to the fact that at present the electric fluid could
not be efficiently transmitted a greater distance from
a station' than about 1,000 yards, and considering
the expense of providing stations, engines, and elec-
trical machines with their attendants, it appeared to
him improbable that the electric light would com-
pete in point of economy with gas for lighting the
public ways. There were, however, places where the
convenience of the large traffic might justify the
expense of employing it during the busiest hours of
darkness—namely, by the King William Statue, in
front of the Mansion-house, Ludgate-circus Charing-
cross, Regent-circus, and so on. Using it on the
Thames Embankment or in the Parks would be waste
of money. In large workshops and manufactories it
might be applied with economy, but not in dwelling
houses. Colonel Haywood in conclusion writes
"These opinions are, of course, founded upon the present
stage of electric science in its application to lighting; but
great developments have been claimed for it even since this
report was commenced, and looking at the advances made
during the last few years, at the attention widely given to
it by men of science, at the inducement which the great
emolument that may be gained holds out, it seems to me
that we may look forward to a speedy and greater develop-
ment of its utility, it will certainly stimulate the gas
companies both to improve the quality of their gas and
suggest a more perfect mode of consuming It; and they
will probably have to reduce its price. I look forward to
a time, not far distant, when gas will be sold at 2s. 6d. per
1,000 cubic feet, and even less, and that thus, by the com-
petition between the lights, the public will be large gainers.
Although I do not think that at present the electric light
can compete with gas in point of economy for lighting the
public ways, yet an ample experiment should be made to
determine this point and to show its value for street illu-
mination. There is no subject of recent years on which the
public appears to entertain such great expectations as it
does with this new light, and, looking at the large interests
which the Commission represents, I beg to recommend that
as early as possible an ample experiment be made by light-
ing with it, during the winter months, one or more of the
public thoroughfares within its jurisdiction."
The Streets Committee, by whom this report had been
laid before the Court, recommended that an experi-
ment in street lighting by means of electricity should
be made upon the Holborn Viaduct, in accordance
with the engineer's suggestions.
Mr. Frederick Cox advised the Court not to make
a solitary experiment on so important a matter, and
suggested the large open space in front of the Royal
Exchange and the Mansion House as a good place for
the continuation of further experiments.
Mr. Cox's suggestion was unanimously agreed to,
and the Streets Committee were directed to make,
both upon the Holborn Viaduct and in front of the
Mansion.house, the necessary preparations for the ex-
hibition of the electric light.