3 JANUARY 1931, Page 17

A Hundred Years Ago

The machinery for arresting the progrea4 of these pleasant and dangerous vehicles, appears to be still extremely deficient.. On Wednesday evening, while some men were attempting to take a stone waggon across the Liverpool rail-road, they saw the Meteor coming on at the rate of twenty miles an hour. The watchman made the usual signal to stop the engine ; the engineer instantly shut, off the steam, and the guards of the different carriages applied the brakes to the wheels : notwithstanding which, the engine came in contact with the waggon, passed over it., and was itself thrown off the rail-road.