Document RRZDEoQ2GR5R1pq9b5aVk5B

3S6 Twenty-third Annual Safety Congress--National Safety Council wt chi* problem than m any other class of accidents. Because every time you have two train service employees injured ly l*eiug struck ir run over, one of* them is killed. A later (Mister *i ihe same subject was entitled "What a Whale of a Difference a rciv Feet Make!" It illustrated the vast difference from a safety (Hunt in* view tliat a icw feet can make when a man chooses to cross a track quite close to the end >l a standing Im*x car. Itrhind which an engine may lie approaching. and the same man doing the same thing at sttch a distance from the Imx car that he can readily see down the other track whether or not an engine is approaching. Address By WILLIAM BUSHNELL STOUT Member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and of the Detroit Aviation Society The .|**aker said in pan: W hen we start any new engineering devclojmicnt we get great punishment tor our ignorance. In fact. I sometimes think there is only ru- sm m the world and that is ignorance. ficcaase we do get punished for it. and very quickly. And when we start a new industry* of which we know nothing, when we are trying to find out wliat it is we are trying to do. we arc in a very* dangerous period ot development. Then as vve liegin to realize and recognize those dangers, ami use our intelligence to get around them, we get to a jmint or development where it is not dangerous any more, only hazardous.* Then as we study further ami acquire e.\|criencc we come to a point where that industry hv the application ot intelligence and study becomes a safe and practical thing. \\ hen we started in on aviation it wa.< dangerous. There is no question about 'hat. As we look Imek mm* we know just liow dangerous it was. We knew nothing about what we were trvtng to do. We knew nothing of the stresses in the air. \e had an idea that flying wouldn't require anv particular strength; if vou would just make something tliat was light enough it would go up in the air. *So tlie first airplane* were ntade of very flimsy materials, put together with stmc 1mils, ami with innler-|*nvcrctl engines. Thev would just liarclv get off the ground .nwl we knew nothing about flviuc. Wlicn a nan got tip and happened to pull tltc stick lock ami climlsii too stecfdv s tliat he lost his speed and by losing his speed h^t his lift and fell <lou*n. \ve railed that a "nose dive** which was a very fatal thing. ilicii we came to the idea--anti it was forced on us very cmplialirallv--tliat air* plam-s had |> lc strong. Our airplanes today are liuilt to stand tremendous velocit'cs. I was up in a ship ycstcrtlay tliat cruises at two hundred miles an hour, which is four limes the stress that was felt in the Miami cyclone, and vet this ship sail* along' without anv trouble or interference ami is a thousand times safer titan the first airplanes that would only go fortv miles an hour. This development was brought a1*out by means of a whole lot of structural analysis. It required a go.*! deal of experimental work to take the guess-work out t the Ituildinc oi tin* structural (tali'of the airidauc. In the past. while we were learning wliat was going on, mam* wings came off. \\e started m with structures that were designed for flving loads and with a factor of safety of three or four times the flying load. At slow spenis, we go! away with it. Then we lecan to step up the speeds. We got up to around 150 miles an hour ami then, without any'warning, and with no aiquiren! reason, all of a a ",,ld $ta>` behind in tlte air and tltc airplane would dive attend. t\hcn one uarticttlar accident occurred that was given a great deal of promi nence at tlte time, a very ihorottch investigation showed the trouble to Ic com pression cracks in sprucr snars. In other ivonts. we had hern making airplane* of wo"d and they were perfectly satisfactorv al slow speeds because the stresses on the wood weren't suflicient to hotlnr us. Init when we cot to high speeds tlte comnressi.nn cracks U*can to deirlon. anil after awhile the spar would fracture just like a faticue crack. Immediately wooden arndanc* were drupjcd from all air lines. All of these developments have a very direct emmeetion with safetv. The newer things liring higher speeds, and on account of the higher speeds they must bring Safety Section, ARA--Steam Railroad Section. NSC S&7 new methods of stopping, neu* methods of grade crossing control, new methods of control of the automobile driver, who isn't always as smart as he might lc. and a wltolc lot of other tilings. ............................. On the air lines we find that the greatest liandicap ts the human element and undoubtedly we have the same difficulty as is indicated by tlicsc posters. In the earlv davs'wlicn we first started flying on our lines in Detroit, we had about four instruments on the dash. We had pilots with pretty good training--pmhaMi a couple of hundred hours in the air. tltc lust available in tliat day. Tliosc pilots would take those planes and fly them. If there was a fog. they would land. They didn't know anything alwnit flying hliiul. If they got mto a fog they didn't know whether they were upside down or rightstdc up. ami no nian in the world could tell. ... ._ ,. .. Todav. however, things arc different, i csterday in Detroit I rode m a ship at a speed of 200 miles an Iwur which had about $6,000 worth of instruments on the dash. Tlie dash is a small area and it is just full of instruments of every kind. The pilot who has flown for many, many years can fly blind even heller titani he can fly when he looks out of the cahin. He has a radio Iteatn on which he flic* accura*tclv as on a string from one town to another. When he wants to land, he can pull down his flaps and land in a siacc the length of a good sized room. As part of his training, every six months tlie pilot goes out with a Dejurtmeut of Commerce man. He is put in the cabin and everything is shut up so he can't sec a thing. They take him out for an hour and lose him. He doesn't know what direction lie is going. The instruments arc covered. At the end of an hour's time thev pull the cover* off the instruments anil tell him to find oitf where he is. He has* to go through a number of maneuvers first, right ami left turns, etc. Then lie lias to find a certain city and tell the instructor, or the man who is examining him. wlicn he is over tlie airport. ........................................ Suppose thev leave from Pittsburgh and fly in the direction oi Detroit. They fly for an hour. Well, this other chap dnesn t know but what they are down hi Washington, liccausc he can go a long distance in an hour, at 200 miles an hour. At the end of tliat time, he is turned loose and told to take the Department n* Commerce examiner to the airport at Cleveland. He feels around, until he picks up a liencon. He listens to the hcacon until he locates it and finds nut what licaom It is--between which two cities it is. Tliat gives Him his due as to where hr is. Then he takes a compass course until the picks up the licacnn running into Cleve land. follows the beacon into Cleveland, and when he gets over the airport, by the landing signal on the licacnn. lie signals his examiner. If he docs that successfully he can flv (or another six months or until his next examination. You will sec that we go to the greatest extremes on everything connected with the air lines to insure tlie safely of passengers liccausc undoubtedly air transporta tion. to the man in the plane, and everyone else, is tlie most hazardous tvt>c of transportation we have developed as vet. For tliat very reason, it can he made the safest, because we have to take these safety precautions, whether we want to or not. Progress and Possibilities in the Prevention of Injuries to Railroad Employees By T. H. CARROW Superintendent of Safety, Pennsylvania Railroad, Philadelphia Tlie speaker said in part: In the year 1924. the Committee on Statistics con cluded tluit the hulk of all injuries to employees were chargeable^ to the human element and that "by improved training, supervision anti discipline.** which implied tlie formulation and enforcement of safely rules, a 5 per cent reduction in the casualty rate could lie effected each year, which. Uy tlie end of 19.VI. would lie equivalent to 35 per cent, which figure was established as the safety .goal. It is uiijiorfant to hear in mind that up to 1924. disriplinr. which was mentioned in the committee's report as a primary means of improving tlie employee injury record, liad not been invoked to any appreciable extent hv very many roads.