Connecticut western news., 1877-01-26
THE ASHTABULA DISASTER,
What Caused It---Three Points of Import
 an0e Discussed.

What Caused It---Three Points of ImpOrt-
 anoe Discussed.
 The testimony concerning the Ashta- bula calamity is confused and to a certain extent contradictory. There are three points of importance CD Whether it was suspected beforehand that the bridge was weak, the suspicion arising from known faults in its construction; CD whether the iron used in the bridge was of good quality; (3) as to reprehensible neglect in putting out the fire. On the last of these points the inquiry is likely to be thorough. A great deal of feeling has been aroused upon this point at 1 Ashtabula. The witnesses testify to the abundance of means for extingrlishing fire. There was plenty of water and at hand and finally fire brigade was there before the fire had reached its height. The excuses made for neglecting to couple the hose and turn on @ stream of water are lame and unsatisfactory. It is not necessary to ascribe an indiffer- ence or malice that would be fiendish to the men who are responsible for that neglect; they were simply incompetent, and lost their wits in the emergency. It is not certain that any lives could have been saved if water had been turned on and the fire extinguished as soon as was practicable; but, unhappily, there is still room for a suspicion that all who were buried in the wreck were not dead when the firemen concluded not to ex- ting1lish the flames. The fact that cries were no longer heard from the wreck seems to be deemed satisfactory on this point by some of the witnesses; but it i certainly is not proof that there was no l life there. MT. Lyons, one of the sur vivors, believes that many lives could have been saved if water had been promptly turned on. In any event the early extinction of the fire would have been of immeasurable service in enabling the dead to be identified. The excuse is that the rescuers were wholly busied in helping the living, and spared no ef
 fort in assisting the sufferers.
 AS to the construction of the bridge, the evidence is not only indefinite it is contradictory If half the rumors about it are we'll founded, the bridge was from the first utterly unfit for its purpose. It is reported that for two years after it was built, the company kept false works under it to give it an appearance of safety. Residents on the line say that the insecurity of that bridge has been matter of common talk for years. At one time there was current belief that a pier was to be built to sustain it at its center, and there appears to have been a dispute as to it's safety between its archi- tects when it was erected, the one who first designed it believing that it was weakened by change of plan. All this needs to be thoroughly sifted before the blame can be laid where it belongs.
 In respect to the iron used for con- structing the bridge, the testimony is meager. The circumstance that 1t had borne the testing load of six locomotives will doubtless be brought as evidence of the original strength of the iron. There is some reason for believing that part of the train was off the track. If this eau be proved it will go long way toward explaining the sudden breaking of the iron. If it cannot be proved, the in- ference must be that the iron was of in ferior quality. The experiments of Prof. R. H. Thurston of the Stevens Techno- logical Institute throw much light on this feature of the case. His apparatus, afterward used by a commission appoint ed by the government to test iron and steel, has revealed many peculiarities oi the metal when under strain, that have previously been little noticed. It would take too much space to present here the } technical details, but a few of the results obtained by testing for varying tenn ] peratures may be summarized. The ex- } periments rather point to than prove the } assertion, that if the iron is of the best, low temperature does not render it more ) liable to break with either quick blow } or steady weight. If it is not of the
 best, it will still bear steady weight } (such as six locomotives) quite as well al low temperatures as at moderate ones l but when exposed to cold near zero o1
 Fahrenheit it will yield more readily tt
 the strain of sudden blow. The i'm pact of q moving railroad train on tht r rails is far more like a sudden blow thar
 like steady weight. The experiments
 are yet incomplete, and it is not fully
 known how far each of the impurities O
 iron-such as sulphur, phosphorus ant , silicon-takes it's share in thus reducing
 it's power to resist blow. But accept } ing these valuable experiments as far a' , they go, one fact seems unquestionable f no railroad bridge made of inferior irol is safe in cold weather. The question 3 must be pressed home Was or was no 8 the bridge at Ashtabula made of the bes
 of iron ?-NeaU York Tribune.