The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1877-01-10
OPINIONS OF EXPERTS.
Several Engineers e>sVe Their Judg-
ment Upon the Pail of the Fatal
IChicago Times.l


IChicsgo Times.l
The Times reporter. in interviewing an
other we'll known civil engineer, elected
the following remarks: "lf she jumped the
track-and i see theengineer of the first To-
connective says that he put on the valves full
on his engine, for be felt that something
had got Oft behind-if she jumped the track
and l believe she did, nothing could have
saved her, and the bridge would have come
down as matter of course. All the bridges
are made the same way and accidents
will sometimes happen, and they
are due TO special causes. They
calculate that if they build q bridge of so
many trusses, each truss 10 bear certain
weight that the bridge is going 10 bear,
without extraordinary strain, a certain ag-
gregata weight. Over and above this Ger
tain margin is allowed, but no provision
could possibly be made for disasters by run
ming of, simply because no one knows
where she is going TO strike. My opinion
Is, said the gentleman, that the second To-
connective went off, that the engineer of the
first locomotive knew it, or suspected il,
ana opened his valves full 10 drag her on
That the locomotive and one or two OF
the forward cars plunged. and down
they went, ana that the after cars came
along and went down by their own mo.
mentum. / think that this sudden Jump
into the center of The roadway broke away
the lateral bracing at the top. and that then
the truss tipped right over With the lateral
bracing gone there would be nothing to sup
port the trusses from top TO bottom, a dis
tanoe of 80 feet, and this being the case the
truss would just tip right over and the train
go down. This theory that the truss tipped
over is borne out by the fact that the cars
were thrown Iully - feet aside from the
parallel line OF the track upon the bed OF the
creek below" Mr.. A. b. Stone, formerly
lr...s e
and who passed over the brigde II hours be-
fore the accident, says: My theory is that
the second locomotive jumped the track.
Ii was two-truss bridge. and laid with two
tracks. l think the locomotive jumped on
to the inside. The truss would then turn
over, for there would be nothing to support
it. The sudden fall of the engine on the
lateral bracing would break that bracing; it
might, too, have struck q cord. | under
stand that the line of the cars, when fallen,
WAS 10 TO 20 feet off from the line of the
bridge, and that would confirm my impress
sion that they broke through and that the
truss tipped. The bridge was a regular
Howe truss, in iron instead OF wood. 1t was
not doubled braced. This bridge is always
considered very strong enc. The engi-
neers' club informally discussed the matter
after their usual session yesterday afternoon
The general tenor of the discussion may be
represented as follows: Very likely car
ran off and the shock was felt by the en-
gineer. This caused him 10 open the
valves to pull through, and this
of itself caused an additional
shock. This action, although 1t saved the
engineer, undoubtedly made il worse for the
train.
Mr.. Morehouse, in answer 10 a question by
the Times reporter about the action of frost
on iron, said: "Of course q great deal de
Ponds upon the quality of the iron. Iron
with great deal of phosphorus in il will
snap at once with frost; that which has but
little in it will not. OF course we always
assume that the very best iron is used in
bridge building. If it isn't il ought"
Several engineers present thought that
the tendency Of modern rsilroad bridge
building was TO make the spans too long any
how, although this span (l57 feet is not
long compared with that of many bridges
in railroad use throughout the country. The
pivotal question upon which the integrity
of the bridge as a structure must hang, and
the question which the engineers want TO
know is this: Did the second locomotive, or
some of the forward cars, or any part OF the
train jump the track, or did she not? If
there was a jump the civil engineers
generally would acquit the bridge, if there
was no jump they would like TO look into
parties who are at present alive.
and possibly able TO talk. One
is the engineer Oh the second 10
comotive the man who went down with his
engine, the conductor. and perhaps one or
two of the brakemen. All these people
could throw light upon the interesting mys-
terry of whether defective bridge or
jumping train is to be held responsible for
the horrible slaughter at Ashtabula.