The Express.
London, England, 1847-06-03 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 3, 1847.

used to strengthen it. I always was of opinion, and as so
still, that these tension rods are not of great use, baron I
consider that the expansion of wrought and toast-lea from
heat differs in some degree, although not very greatly but
that ironlirders being very massive, and the tension bars
thin and of email dimensions, the mane may act
on the wrought-iron rods very considerably, and lees
on the cad-iron girders, and supposing them to be
adjusted for a moderate temperature the intensity
of the weather may destroy their proper proportion,
and do away with the benefit of the tension. I
may here state that wrought iron, when acted upon, will
considerably elongate without breaking ; but east iron will
not without breaking. There have been a number of bridges
of this description erected on railways in various parts of
England, both before and after I held the appointment of
inspector-general of railways, none of which, with the ex-
ception of this one, ever failed. Coroner Were any of them
' of the same extent ?—General Paisley: Not quite the same
extent, but I will allude to a east iron girder bridge at York,
over the River Ouse, of the York and Scarborough Railway.
which has two openings of 70 feet *pan. The least depth
of the iron girder on that bridge is 3 feet. The least depth
of those on the Dee bridge is 3 feet 9 inches, and es the
bridge at York and other similar bridges have stood, I con-
cluded that this one would, as it had an extra depth to ren-
der it sato. I may also mention another bridge ever the Tees at
Stockton. Although I have not sees it, I may vouch for
what I 'tote to be correct It has a epan of 83 feet 4 in., and
the lout depth of iron is 3 feet —Mr. R. Stephenson said
it was 87 feet —General Pesky : I thought it was what I
stated, but you may bo correct. The traffic on it is chiefly of
coals, but if I had known of this inquest I would have gone
and seen it. The flange on this bridge is greater than on
others. I have frequently mentioned to engineers that
wrought iron tension rods would do little good. In my in-
gereaon of • cast iron girder bridge on the Systole and
Peterborough railway, built by Mr. Liddle, the resident en-
gineer, I found that he had omitted tension bars ; and in my
report to Earl of Clarendon I approved of the omission,
and considered it • preferable construction. It appeared
that Mr. Liddle could not get the tension rods in time, and
therefore he built the bridge without them. Having.men-
timed this repeatedly to engineers, I have been given to un-
derstand that Mr. Bidder and Mr. Gooch, two talented gen-
tlemen, for whom I entertain much respect, have made experi-
ments with a viewer testing the strength of girders without rods,
and I am informed that the trial was in favour of the latter.
Coroner Which is the weakest part of this bridge in your
opinion ? General Feeley I should say that the pressure is
about equal.—Coroner Havint surveyed the bridge, to
what do you attribute the accident ? General Feeley : It
has been stated that some time after the Shrewsbury and
Chester Railway was opened, and after I had inspected it,
a girder was cracked, and replaced by a new girder.
This circumstance, which I did not know and which was
ported to government, coupled with the fracture of
this one, inducts me to think that they are not safe, and
that it is a mere cast of a die between their safety and danger.
They are on the verge of danger. By examining the bridge on
Thursday last and to-day, I consider that the tension rods
are of very little use indeed. The tension rods are connected
with the girder alone as if they were part of the girder; they
have nn independent support, and there is a difference
between this bridge and Mr. Stephenson's former iron girder
bridges. In ell his former iron girder bridges there is a con-
nexion from girder to girder on the central pier or piers
from one end of the bridge to the other, so that when the
pressure is on one girder, the other girder in the same line
contributes to assist. That is the case with the one on the
River Ouse at York. The horizontal portion of these bars
appears to be useless. The oblique tension bars would be
of use if the upper ends were fixed to some independent
support to each pier, and similar independent support on
each abutment, and that the standards or support over the
abutments should have tension bars extending inland to
resist the heavy weight going over tee extreme
openings of the bridge. There is a swing bridge over the
River Wensum at Norwich, strengthened on this principle,
and which is extremely judicious. In this case, I
consider that the girder broke on a train peeing
over it, and the balled that had been thrown on
it in the course of the morning. The masonry gave
way from the girder breaking, and from that cause alone.
I examined the girder and the castings seemed very good
and! believe itis generally admitted that they are good, but
the girder was too weak after the ballast that was put upon
it. The girder was fat enough in the masonry to support it.
There wee quite bearing. enough to render it secure.—
Coroner : Would the engine-driver suddenly putting on the
steam cause the engine to bound with such force as to break
the girder ? Gen. Palley No; certainly not. I saw nothing
to throw the carriages off the rails on the bridge, which had
strong guard rails. I should say that no girder could have
withstood a deflection of 51 inchee se stated by a witness this
day. I think that person is a very inaccurate observer. It
would have broke short at ouce. A continued deflection of
4 inches must have broke it long before this occurred.
Sir E. S. Walker : Now, General, if this bridge was re-
stored to its original state, would you be prepared to pass it
fit for public security ? Gen. Parley No, I would not. As
I am not infallible, although I did sanction its opening, I
should not now allow trains to pass over it without fixing
independent supporters. It could be rendered perfectly safe
by adopting what I suggest. For my own part, and I am not
troubled a ith nervousness, I certainly should not like to
travel over it until it was secured as I have stated.—By Mr.
Tyrell : I do not believe that the tender ran against the
outside girder. I noticed the masonry that was disturbed.
Did not measure the height of the abutment in reference to
the tender. Did not notice in particular that the chains
were broken. Was told that one of the wheels of a carriage
broke,: and I was only surprised that they were not all
broken. In all the railway accidents that I have had to
inquire about, I never found a train precipitated into a river.
—By Sir E. Walker: If the tender had struck the girder, I
should say that the stoker might have been thrown into the
river. Noticed that the tender had struck something.
The nature of the accident has proved to me that there was
no defect in the flange, but brackets on girders would be •
great improvement.
The inquiry wasproceeding when our reporter left at 5,1i.m.

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of Stockport on Tuesday moeub& sod eerYaned it during
the whde of yesterday. Partiesdy acquainted with
the state of public feeling, say It will be a severe struggle
between him and Mr. Heald (backed by Wesleyan influence),
but that he will win.

IRELAND.
Coax Cooray.—lt is new certain that Mr. John O'Connell
will nut start for Cork county. The Cork Examiner sug-
gests the name of Sir Colman O'Loughlin, who thinks of
anything at
_present except a seat in parliament.
DtRLIN UNivsarlTY.—Mr. Giffard, it is said, will re-
ceive the support of a large party. The ultras of church
sad state will rally round his Standard.

SCOTLAND.
Sir David Baird is again confidently spoken of for Mad-
dington, and a round denunciation of the game laws would
make him a formidable antagonist to the competitors already
announced. Mr. Mackintosh, ef Raigraore, is to be asked to
come forward on the conservative in for the Inverness
burghs.
GitEBNOCK.—A meeting of a portion of the liberal electors
was held on Monday, when it was announced that Lord
Reigned, son of the Earl of Minto, and brother-in-law of
the premier, had signified his readiness to stand as a candi-
date for the representation of this town in Parliament. A
deputation was appointed to proceed to Ola.gow to Lord
Melgund, with a requisition, which, before the meeting was
closed, had upwards of 100 names subscribed to it.

IRELAND.
DUBLIN, JUNE I.
The alarm for the present safety of the potato crop
has subsided. The appearances on which the fears of
failure were founded, differed altogether from the
phenomena which heralded destruction in the last and
preceding years. There is this peculiarity also in the
disease of 18.15-6, which has not yet appeared. The
whole crop was blighted in one week through the
whole island, and a single night embrowned the crops
of an entire county. The infection, whatever it was,
was instantaneous. Plow, in the present case, the

symptoms of decay are limited to a very few districts.
There is nothing of what may be called the instan-
taneous corruption. Some discoloration has taken
place, but it has quickly yielded to atmospheric in-
fluences. The very few southern and northern
journals received to-day speak exultingly of the ap-
pearance of the potato crop. But we must not be too
confident. It is possible that, should the visitation
come, it will fall upon us within the next month.
The blight of '46 was earlier by six weeks than that
of '45, and reasoning from the analogy, we may
expect the fearful visitor, should it be our destiny,
about the end of June.

There is to be a meeting of the medical practi-
tioners of Dublin to-day, to consider the inadequacy
of the remuneration they receive for the discharge of
public duties. Sir Henry Marsh will take the chair.
The origin of the movement was, the proposed scale
of fees for attendance at the new fever hospitals,
amounting, it is said, to a penny per day for each
patient. Whatever course the profession adopt,
private interests should be reconciled with public
duties.