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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Reuchlin, Johann

REUCHLIN, JOHANN (1455-1522), German humanist and Hebraist, was born on the 22nd of February 1455 at Pforzheim in the Black Forest, where his father was an official of the Dominican monastery. In, the pedantic taste of his time the name was graecicized by his Italian friends into Capnion, a form which Reuchlin himself uses as a sort of transparent mask when he introduces himself as an interlocutor in the De Verbo Mirifico. For his native place Reuchlin always retained an affection; he constantly writes himself Phorcensis, and in the De Verbo he does not forget to ascribe to Pforzheim his first disposition to letters. Here he began his Latin studies in the monastery school, and, though in 1470 he was a short time in Freiburg, that university seems to have taught him little. Reuchlin's career as a scholar appears to have turned almost on an accident; his fine voice gained him a place in the household of Charles I., margrave of Baden, and by-and-by, having already some reputation as a Latinist, he was chosen to accompany to the university of Paris Frederick, the third son of the prince, a lad some years his junior, who was destined for an ecclesiastical career. This new connexion lasted but a year or so, but it determined the course of Reuchlin's life. He now began to learn Greek, which had been taught in the French capital since 1470, and he also attached himself to the leader of the Paris realists, Jean Heynlin, or à Lapide (d. 1496), a

worthy and learned man, whom he followed to the vigorous young university of Basel in 1474. At Basel Reuchlin took his master's degree (1477), and began to lecture with success, teaching a more classical Latin than was then common in German schools, and also explaining Aristotle in Greek. His studies in this language had been continued at Basel under Andronicus Contoblacas, and here too he formed the acquaintance of the bookseller, Johann Amorbach, for whom he prepared a Latin lexicon (Vocabularius Breviloquus, 1st ed., 1475-76), which did good service in its time and ran through many editions. This first publication and Reuchlin's account of his teaching at Basel in a letter to Cardinal Adrian (Adriano Castellesi) in February 1518 show that he had already found the work which in a larger sphere occupied his whole life. He was no original genius, but a born teacher. But this work of teaching was not to be done mainly from the professor's chair. Reuchlin soon left Basel to seek further Greek training with George Hieronymus at Paris, and to learn to write a fair Greek hand that he might support himself by copying MSS. And now he felt that he must choose a profession. His choice fell on law, and he was thus led to the great school of Orleans (1478), and finally to Poitiers, where he became licentiate in July 1481. From Poitiers Reuchlin went in December 1481 to Tübingen, with the intention of becoming a teacher in the university, but his friends recommended him to Count Eberhard of Württemberg, who was about to journey to Italy and required an interpreter. Reuchlin was selected for this post, and in February 1482 left Stuttgart for Florence and Rome. The journey lasted but a few months, but it brought the German scholar into contact with several learned Italians, especially at the Medicean Academy in Florence; his connexion with the count became permanent, and after his return to Stuttgart he received important posts at Eberhard's court. About this time he appears to have married, but little is known of his married life. He left no children; but in later years his sister's grandson Melanchthon was almost as a son to him till the Reformation estranged them. In 1490 he was again in Italy. Here he saw Pico della Mirandola, to whose Cabbalistic doctrines he afterwards became heir, and also made the friendship of the pope's secretary, Jakob Questenberg, which was of service to him in his later troubles. Again in 1492 he was employed on an embassy to the emperor Frederick at Linz, and here he began to read Hebrew with the emperor's Jewish physician Jakob ben Jehiel Loans. He knew something of this language before, but Loans's instruction laid the basis of that thorough knowledge which he afterwards improved on his third visit to Rome in 1498 by the instruction of Obadja Sforno of Cesena. In 1494 his rising reputation had been greatly enhanced by the publication of De Verbo Mirifico.

In 1496 Eberhard of Württemberg died, and enemies of Reuchlin had the ear of his successor, Duke Eberhard. He was glad, therefore, hastily to follow the invitation of Johann von Dalberg (1445-1503), the scholarly bishop of Worms, and flee to Heidelberg, which was then the seat of the “Rhenish Society.” In this court of letters Reuchlin's appointed function was to make translations from the Greek authors, in which his reading was already extremely wide. Though Reuchlin had no public office as teacher, and even at Heidelberg was prevented from lecturing, he was during a great part of his life the real centre of all Greek teaching as well as of all Hebrew teaching in Germany. To carry out this work he found it necessary to provide a series of helps for beginners and others. He never published a Greek grammar, though he had one in MS. for use with his pupils, but he put out several little elementary Greek books. Reuchlin, it may be noted, pronounced Greek as his native teachers had taught him to do, i.e. in the modern Greek fashion. This pronunciation, which he defends in Dialogus de ''Recta Lat. Graecique Serm. Pron.'' (1519), came to be known, in contrast to that used by Erasmus, as the Reuchlinian.

At Heidelberg Reuchlin had many private pupils, among whom Franz von Sickingen is the best known name. With the monks he had never been liked; at Stuttgart also his great enemy was the Augustinian Conrad Holzinger. On this man he

took a scholar's revenge in his first Latin comedy Sergius, a satire on worthless monks and false relics.

Through Dalberg, Reuchlin came into contact with Philip, elector palatine of the Rhine, who employed him to direct the studies of his sons, and in 1498 gave him the mission to Rome which has been already noticed as fruitful for Reuchlin's progress in Hebrew. He came back laden with Hebrew books, and found when he reached Heidelberg that a change of government had opened the way for his return to Stuttgart, where his wife had remained all along. His friends had now again the upper hand, and knew Reuchlin's value. In 1500, or perhaps in 1502, he was given a very high judicial office in the Swabian League, which he held till 1512, when he retired to a small estate near Stuttgart.

For many years Reuchlin had been increasingly absorbed in Hebrew studies, which had for him more than a mere philological interest. Though he was always a good Catholic, and even took the habit of an Augustinian monk when he felt that his death was near, he was too thorough a humanist to be a blind follower of the church. He knew the abuses of monkish religion, and was interested in the reform of preaching as shown in his De Arte Predicandi (1503) — a book which became a sort of preacher's manual; but above all as a scholar he was eager that the Bible should be better known, and could not tie himself to the authority of the Vulgate. The key to the Hebraea veritas was the grammatical and exegetical tradition of the medieval rabbins, especially of David Kimhi, and when he had mastered this himself he was resolved to open it to others. In 1506 appeared his epoch-making De Rudimentis Hebraicis — grammar and lexicon — mainly after Kimhi, yet not a mere copy of one man's teaching. The edition was costly and sold slowly. One great difficulty was that the wars of Maximilian I. in Italy prevented Hebrew Bibles coming into Germany. But for this also Reuchlin found help by printing the Penitential Psalms with grammatical explanations (1512), and other helps followed from time to time. But his Greek studies had interested him in those fantastical and mystical systems of later times with which the Cabbala has no small affinity. Following Pico, he seemed to find in the Cabbala a profound theosophy which might be of the greatest service for the defence of Christianity and the reconciliation of science with the mysteries of faith — an unhappy delusion indeed, but one not surprising in that strange time of ferment. Reuchlin's mystico-cabbalistic ideas and objects were expounded in the De Verbo Mirifico, and finally in the De Arte Cabbalistica (1517).

Unhappily many of his contemporaries thought that the first step to the conversion of the Jews was to take from them their books. This view had for its chief advocate the bigoted Johann Pfefferkorn (1469-1521), himself a baptized Hebrew. Pfefferkorn's plans were backed by the Dominicans of Cologne; and in 1509 he got from the emperor authority to confiscate all Jewish books directed against the Christian faith. Armed with this mandate, he visited Stuttgart and asked Reuchlin's help as a jurist and expert in putting it into execution. Reuchlin evaded the demand, mainly because the mandate lacked certain formalities, but he could not long remain neutral. The execution of Pfefferkorn's schemes led to difficulties and to a new appeal to Maximilian. In 1510 Reuchlin was summoned in the name of the emperor to give his opinion on the suppression of the Jewish books. His answer is dated from Stuttgart, October 6, 1510; in it he divides the books into six classes — apart from the Bible which no one proposed to destroy — and, going through each class, he shows that the books openly insulting to Christianity are very few and viewed as worthless by most Jews themselves, while the others are either works necessary to the Jewish worship, which was licensed by papal as well as imperial law, or contain matter of value and scholarly interest which ought not to be sacrificed because they are connected with another faith than that of the Christians. He proposed that the emperor should decree that for ten years there be two Hebrew chairs at every German university for which the Jews should furnish books. The other experts proposed that all books

should be taken from the Jews; and, as the emperor still hesitated, the bigots threw on Reuchlin the whole blame of their ill success. Pfefferkorn circulated at the Frankfort fair of 1511 a gross libel (Handspiegel wider und gegen die Juden) declaring that Reuchlin had been bribed; and Reuchlin retorted as warmly in the Augenspiegel (1511). His adversary's next move was to declare the Augenspiegel a dangerous book; the Cologne theological faculty, with the inquisitor Jakob von Hochstraten (d. 1527) took up this cry, and on the 7th of October 1512 they obtained an imperial order confiscating the Augenspiegel. Reuchlin was timid, but he was honesty itself. He was willing to receive corrections in theology, which was not his subject, but he could not unsay what he had said; and as his enemies tried to press him into a corner he met them with open defiance in a Defensio contra Calumniatores (1513). The universities were now appealed to for opinions, and were all against Reuchlin. Even Paris (August 1514) condemned the Augenspiegel, and called on Reuchlin to recant. Meantime a formal process had begun at Mainz before the grand inquisitor, but Reuchlin by an appeal succeeded in transferring the question to Rome. Judgment was not finally given till July 1516; and then, though the decision was really for Reuchlin, the trial was simply quashed. The result had cost Reuchlin years of trouble and no small part of his modest fortune, but it was worth the sacrifice. For far above the direct, importance of the issue was the great stirring of public opinion which had gone forward. And if the obscurantists escaped easily at Rome, with only a half condemnation, they received a crushing blow in Germany. No party could survive the ridicule that was poured on them in the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, the first volume of which written chiefly by Crotus Rubeanus appeared in 1514, and the second by Ulrich von Hutten in 1517. Hutten and Franz von Sickingen did all they could to force Reuchlin's enemies to a restitution of his material damages; they even threatened a feud against the Dominicans of Cologne and Spires. In 1520 a commission met in Frankfort to investigate the case. It condemned Hochstraten. But the final decision of Rome did not indemnify him. The contest ended, however; public interest had grown cold, absorbed entirely by the Lutheran question, and Reuchlin had no reason to fear new attacks. Reuchlin did not long enjoy his victory in peace. In 1519 Stuttgart was visited by famine, civil war and pestilence. From November of this year to the spring of 1321 the veteran statesman sought refuge in Ingolstadt and taught there for a year as professor of Greek and Hebrew. It was forty-one years since at Poitiers he had last spoken from a public chair; but the old man of sixty-five had not lost his gift of teaching, and hundreds of scholars crowded round him. This gleam of autumn sunshine was again broken by the plague; but now he was called to Tübingen and again spent the winter of 1521-22 teaching in his own systematic way. But in the spring he found it necessary to visit the baths of Liebenzell, and here he was seized with jaundice, of which he died on the 30th of June 1522, leaving in the history of the new learning a name only second to that of his younger contemporary Erasmus.

 * (W. R. S.)


text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Egbert (639-729)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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26 single day's hunt and as the spoils of two gunners only, to bring home four deer and a wild turkey? Ye gastronomes! who relish the proceeds of a hunt better than its toils and perils—a glance at that larder, if you please! Look at that fine bird, so carefully hung up by the neck; his spurs are an inch and a half in length, his beard eight inches; what an ample chest! what glossy plumage!—his weight is twenty-five pounds! And see that brave array of haunches! that is a buck of two years,—juicy, tender, but not fat,—capital for steaks! But your eye finds something yet more attractive—the saddle of a four-year-old doe, kidney covered, as you see; a morsel more savoury smokes not upon a monarch's board. How pleasant to eat! Shall I say it?—how much pleasanter to give away! Ah, how such things do win their way to hearts—men's and women's too! My young sporting friends, a word in your ear: the worst use you can make of your game is to eat it yourselves.


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[Edgar Allan Poe was born, it is supposed, in Boston in 1809. His mother and father having died when he was three years old, he was adopted by Mrs. John Allan of Richmond, Virginia. He was educated in England and at the University of Virginia and West Point. In January, 1831, he was dismissed from the Military Academy on account of neglect of duties, and went to New York to embark upon a literary career. His life from this time was very erratic, being passed in various cities—Richmond and Baltimore especially. Poe became connected with several magazines, but on account of the irregularities of his character—especially drinking—and ill health, he was unable to hold any of these positions for any length of time. In May, 1836, he was married to Miss Virginia Clemm, his cousin, who at the time of the marriage was but fourteen years old. In 1846, while the Poes were living in a small cottage at Fordham, she died of consumption under distressing conditions of poverty. This bereavement so affected Poe that it is hardly possible to believe that he was himself mentally during the remaining few years of his life. In the early part of October, 1849, he went to Baltimore, and shortly afterwards was found lying senseless in a saloon which was being used as a voting place. He was removed to


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28 a hospital where he died on the morning of the 7th of October. The mystery surrounding the circumstances of his death has never been unraveled. Poe challenges attention in literature because of three notable contributions—critical essays, short stories, and poems. As the critical essays are not represented in this volume, they may be dismissed with the brief statement that in spite of personal bias and jealousies, Poe's criticism is independent and suggestive, and his judgments have in the main proved to be those of posterity. His poetic contribution is discussed in another place in this book. Of his short stories, or "tales," as he called them, it may be said that these are among the best examples of this form of literature in the English language. In range of subject matter Poe was narrow, but on the constructive side of story writing he yields to few writers.]

During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was—but with the first glimpse of the building a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house and the simple landscape features of the domain, upon the bleak walls, upon the vacant eyelike windows, upon a few rank sedges, and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees—with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium: the bitter lapse into everyday life, the hideous dropping off of


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Rh the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it—I paused to think—what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate, its capacity for sorrowful impression; and acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled luster by the dwelling, and gazed down—but with a shudder even more thrilling than before—upon the remodeled and inverted images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and eyelike windows. Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of the country—a letter from him—which in its wildly importunate nature had admitted of no other than a personal reply. The MS. gave evidence of nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness, of a mental disorder which oppressed him, and of an earnest desire to see me, as his best and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady. It was the manner


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30 in which all this, and much more, was said—it was the apparent heart that went with his request—which allowed me no room for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still considered a very singular summons.

Although as boys we had been even intimate associates, yet I really knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and habitual. I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had been noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament, displaying itself, through long ages, in many works of exalted art, and manifested of late in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive charity, as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps even more than to the orthodox and easily recognizable beauties, of musical science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact that the stem of the Usher race, all time-honored as it was, had put forth at no period any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling and very temporary variation, so lain. It was this deficiency, I considered, while running over in thought the perfect keeping of the character of the premises with the accredited character of the people, and while speculating upon the possible influence which the one, in the long lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other—it was this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent undeviating transmission from sire to son of the patrimony with the name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge the original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal appellation of the "House of Usher," an appellation which seemed to include, in the minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family mansion.

I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish experiment, that of looking down within the tarn, had been to deepen the first singular impression. There can be no doubt


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Rh that the consciousness of the rapid increase of my superstition—for why should I not so term it?—served mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a basis. And it might have been for this reason only, that when I again uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the pool, there grew in my mind a strange fancy—a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I but mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed me. I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to themselves and their immediate vicinity—an atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn; a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.

Shaking off from my spirit what must have been a dream, I scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute fungi over spread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine tangled webwork from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect adaptation of parts and the crumbling condition of the individual stones. In this there was much that reminded one of the specious totality of old woodwork which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault, with no disturbance from the breath of the external air. Beyond this indication of extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little token of instability. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinizing observer might have discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.


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32 Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the house. A servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the Gothic archway of the hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence conducted me, in silence, through many dark and intricate passage in my progress to the studio of his master. Much that I encountered on the way contributed, I know not how, to heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already spoken. While the objects around me—while the carvings of the ceilings, the somber tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors, and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode—were but matters to which, or to such as which, I had been accustomed from my infancy—while I hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all this—I still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which ordinary images were stirring up. On one of the staircases I met the physician of the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a mingled expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me with trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door and ushered me into the presence of his master.

The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse, comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.


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text: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Egbert (d.766)


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Rh Upon my entrance, Usher arose from a sofa on which he had been lying at full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth which had much in it, I at first thought, of an overdone cordiality—of the constrained effort of the ennuyé man of the world. A glance, however, at his countenance convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; and for some moments, while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a feeling half of pity, half of awe. Surely man had never before so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Lusher! It was with difficulty that I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being before me with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet the character of his face had been at all times remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril unusual in similar formations; a finely molded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence, of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than weblike softness and tenuity; these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be forgotten. And now in the mere exaggeration of the prevailing character of these features, and of the expression they were wont to convey, lay so much of change that I doubted to whom I spoke. The now ghastly pallor of the skin, and the now miraculous luster of the eye, above all things startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated rather than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect its arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity. In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an incoherence, an inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble and futile struggles to overcome an


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34 habitual trepidancy, an excessive nervous agitation. For some thing of this nature I had indeed been prepared, no less by his letter than by reminiscences of certain boyish traits, and by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical conformation and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of energetic concision—that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow-sounding enunciation—that leaden, self-balanced and perfectly modulated guttural utterance—which may be observed in the lost drunkard, or the irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods of his most intense excitement.

It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his earnest desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to afford him. He entered, at some length, into what he conceived to be the nature of his malady. It was, he said, a constitutional and a family evil, and one for which he despaired to find a remedy—a mere nervous affection, he immediately added, which would undoubtedly soon pass off. It displayed itself in a host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed them, interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms and the general manner of the narration had their weight. He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the odors of all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.

To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. "I shall perish," said he, "I must perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus, and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future, not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of any, even the most trivial,


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 The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent Federal agency dedicated to promoting aviation, railroad, highway, marine, pipeline, and hazardous materials safety. Established in 1967, the agency is mandated by the Independent Safety Board Act of 1974 to investigate transportation accidents, determine the probable cause of accidents, issue safety recommendations, study transportation safety issues, and evaluate the safety effectiveness of government agencies involved in transportation.

The Safety Board makes public its actions and decisions through accident reports, safety studies, special investigation reports, safety recommendations, and statistical reviews. Copies of these documents may be purchased from the National Technical Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Virginia 22161. Details on available publications may be obtained by contacting:

National Transportation Safety Board Public Inquiries Section, RE-52 800 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington, D.C. 20594 (202)382-6735


text:
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Reumont, Alfred von

REUMONT, ALFRED VON (1808-1887), German scholar and diplomatist, the son of Gerhard Reumont (1765-1829), was born on the 15th of August 1808 and was named Alfred after the English king, Alfred the Great. Educated at the universities of Bonn and Heidelberg, he obtained a position in Florence through the influence of an Englishman, William Craufurd, but soon he entered the Prussian diplomatic service and was employed in

Florence, in Constantinople and in Rome. He also spent some time in the Foreign Office in Berlin. From 1851 to 1860 he represented his country in Florence. Reumont was the friend and adviser of Frederick William IV. In 1879 he founded the Aachener Geschichtsverein, and having spent his concluding years at Bonn and at Aix-la-Chapelle, he died in the latter city on the 27th of April 1887.


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 * the engineer’s training program, which did not adequately address emergency situations;
 * changes in operating procedures made by Southern Pacific after the accident;

Pipeline
 * Southern Pacific’s wreckage clearing operations in the area Calnev’s pipeline alignment;
 * Calnev’s oversight surveillance of the train wreckage clearing operations and trona removal in the derailment area;
 * Calnev’s assessment of pipeline integrity prior to resuming full pressure operation of the pipeline after the derailment;
 * the effectiveness of the pipeline check valves used to minimize product release;
 * the adequacy of Federal regulations to address the inspection and maintenance of valves for liquid pipelines.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the train derailment on May 12, 1989, was the failure to determine and communicate the accurate trailing weight of the train, failure to communicate the status of the train’s dynamic brakes, and the Southern Pacific operating rule that provided inadequate direction to the head-end engineer on the allowable speed and brake pipe reduction down the 2.2-percent grade.

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the pipeline rupture on May 25, 1989, was the inadequate testing and inspection of the pipeline following the derailment that failed to detect damage to the pipe by earth-moving equipment. Contributing to the cause of the pipeline rupture was the severity of the train derailment that resulted in extensive wreckage and commodity removal operations. Contributing to the severity of the damage resulting from substantial product release was Calnev’s failure to inspect and test check valves to determine that they functioned properly, particularly after the train derailment.

As a result of its investigation, the Safety Board issued safety recommendations to the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, the Calnev Pipe Line Company, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Association of American Railroads, the City of San Bernardino, the Research and Special Programs Administration, the National Association of Counties, and the National League of Cities. The safety board also reiterated safety recommendations to the Research and Special Programs Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration.


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Events Preceding the Train Derailment

Loading of Hopper Cars.—The Lake Minerals Corporation, an Owens Lake, California, company involved in the mining and shipment of trona, contracted with the Southern Pacific Transportation Company (SP) to have a shipment of trona transported from the Corporation’s rail facility in Rosamond, California (see figure 1), to the Port of Los Angeles. The trona was then to be loaded into a vessel destined for Colombia, South America. Lake Minerals’ customer had ordered 6,835 tons of trona. The contract with the SP specified that the railroad would provide 69 100-ton open-top hopper cars; Lake Minerals’ payment to the SP was to be based on 100 tons per car.

Because Lake Minerals Corporation did not have rail facilities at its Owens Lake plant, the trona was shipped by truck from there to the rail facility at Rosamond, where the trona was loaded into the open-top hopper cars by a loading contractor hired by the Lake Minerals Corporation. The Lake Minerals Corporation had shipped trona by rail to the Port of Los Angeles on only one previous occasion. The superintendent of Lake Minerals Corporation testified that on that first shipment the company had averaged 88 tons per car when the contract had also called for 100 tons per car. He stated, "We ended up with a significant shortage at the port and did not have enough material to fill the vessel," and "…we ended up with a dead freight charge." For the second shipment, Lake Minerals Corporation requested that the loading contractor install a sensing device on the front-end loader to measure the amount of material that was being loaded into the cars. To test the accuracy of the sensing device, a truck was loaded with the trona and weighed on the truck scale at the loading facility. The device was checked for accuracy after about half the cars had been loaded. The superintendent stated that he was satisfied that the device accurately weighed the loads. He further testified that "we were very concerned with being as accurate as possible." In addition to expressing concern that they did not underestimate the amount of trona loaded, he stated, "At the Port facility there is no way to handle the trona if we had excess material and the vessel was loaded. We would have had to dump it on the ground and haul it back, and we wanted to avoid that at all costs."


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 Because the rail facility at Rosamond would not accommodate 69 cars, on May 5, May 6, and May 8, 1989, the SP moved 32, 15, and 22 loaded cars, respectively, from Rosamond to a side track at Fleta (figure 1). After the cars were loaded, yard clerks at Mojave "released" the cars by changing the status of each car from an "empty" to a "load," in SP's computer system. The computer process required, at the time the status was changed, the entry of an estimated weight of the product. Three different yard clerks, based on their prior railroad experience, entered estimated weights into the car file of the computer system on three separate occasions—each time the groups of cars were moved from the Rosamond facility to the side track at Fleta. (The 32 cars moved on May 5 were estimated at 50 tons each, the 15 cars moved on May 6 were estimated at 75 tons each, and the 22 cars moved on May 8 were estimated at 60 tons each.) The light (empty) weight of the car was programmed into the system, and the system would automatically compute the total weight of each car. According to their testimony, the yard clerks, who had no knowledge of the contents of the contract between the SP and Lake Minerals, believed that the weight they estimated when the cars were released would be automatically replaced in the computer system by the weights shown on the shipper’s bill of lading when that document was later received in Los Angeles and the shipper weights were entered into the computer. Testimony by the yard clerks further indicated that estimated weights supplied when cars were released were routinely overridden by shipper weights at later dates, and that they had no reason to believe that it would not be done in this instance. One of the yard clerks, who had worked in that capacity for 17 years with the SP and who estimated the weights of the 15 cars moved on May 6, stated that it was important to estimate as closely as possible the actual weights of the cars; however, he could not offer a precise reason for why it was important. There was no documentation available to the yard clerks that indicated the actual weight of trona (or any other commodity).

Preparing the Shipper’s Bill of Lading.—On May 6, 1989, the superintendent of Lake Minerals Corporation submitted a bill of lading for the 69 cars loaded with trona to a shipping clerk at the SP’s yard office at Mojave. The bill of lading (appendix C) indicated the total number of cars to be shipped, the destination of the cars, and the car numbers. The weight of the cars was not listed on the bill of lading, and there was no discussion regarding the weight of the cars. The document was reviewed and signed by both the shipping clerk and the superintendent. The superintendent testified that it was an oversight that he did not provide the weights on the bill of lading. He stated, "There was no question about the weights and it was understood, as far as I knew, that they were 100 ton cars, they were loaded and we’d ordered 69 of them." The shipping clerk testified that after the superintendent of Lake Minerals Corporation left the office, he realized


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 that the SP billing office in Los Angeles would require that a weight be shown on the shipper’s bill of lading. He stated that he attempted to contact Lake Minerals Corporation to inquire about the weights of the cars but was unable to obtain the company’s telephone number. Based on his experience working for the railroad, he then estimated the weight of the product to be 60 tons per car and wrote the figure of 120,000 pounds per car on the bill of lading (appendix C). He testified, "…I figured these cars were lighter than cement cars and I knew cement cars were 75 tons, so my estimated weight was 60 tons and I entered it." The shipping clerk did not indicate on the bill of lading that the weight listed was an estimated weight. After the writing the figure of 120,000 pounds per car on the bill of lading, he sent the document, via a facsimile (fax) machine, to the Los Angeles office. The shipping clerk testified that he had never before received a bill of lading that did not have the weights provided. There was no documentation available to the shipping clerk that indicated the actual weight of trona (or any other commodity) or outlined the procedures to follow when the shipper did not provide weights on the bill of lading. The superintendent of Lake Minerals testified that he believed the weight of 200,000 pounds per car had been written on the bill of lading for the first shipment of trona.

Upon receipt of the document in the Los Angeles office, a billing clerk entered the bill of lading information into SP’s computer system; information that would later be used to prepare the train (tonnage) profile. According to SP’s director of system clerical operations, there are two methods available to the billing clerk to enter bill of lading information into the computer when a unit train is involved. He testified, "One is where the only thing that you show is the total shipment weight, the cumulative weight of all cars and not the individual weights of each car. The second method of entry is where you make the individual weights for the individual cars." Further testimony indicated that if the first method is used, weight information will be entered into the waybill file but that any weight previously entered into the car file will not be upgraded. If the second method is used, the weights estimated and previously entered into the car file of the computer system by the yard clerks would be overridden by the weights entered by the billing clerk. The billing clerk in Los Angeles on May 6, 1989, used the first method for entering the bill of lading information. There was no indication on the document received by the billing clerk in Los Angeles that the figure of 120,000 pounds per car was an estimated weight.


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 Activities of Extra 7551 East.—At 5:00 p.m., on May 11, 1989, the chief train dispatcher on duty at Los Angeles, California, telephoned a yard clerk at Mojave (see figure 1) and informed him of plans to operate a train to haul the 69 cars of trona from Fleta to West Colton, near Los Angeles. At 9:00 p.m. that evening, a traincrew consisting of a locomotive engineer, a conductor, and a brakeman reported for duty at SP’s yard office in Bakersfield, California. At 9:15 p.m. while in the Bakersfield yard office, the conductor telephoned the yard clerk at Mojave and was told about the crew’s assignment to operate SP train MJLBP1-11 (designated Extra 7551 East) out of Mojave to haul 69 cars of trona. The crewmembers were transported in a company van from Bakersfield to Mojave where they arrived and entered the yard office at about 10:30 p.m. The crew picked up a clearance form, train orders, train list, and tonnage profile (the latter document is generated by the SP computer system and based, in part, on information in the car file) (appendix D), and departed the office. The documents provided to the crew indicated that the train consisted of 69 loaded cars with a trailing tonnage of 6,151 tons. The engineer testified that neither he nor the conductor had any concern about the paperwork received. The dispatcher on duty at 5:00 p.m. that day had arranged for the crew to take three locomotive units from the Mojave yard to Fleta (3 miles away) where they would couple onto the 69 cars assembled in the siding. They were to then pick up an additional locomotive unit at Palmdale Two (figure 1) to help in ascending the 2.2 percent grade to Hiland.

After departing the office, the crew proceeded to the yard to check out the three-unit locomotive consist. Between 11:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., the conductor called the yard clerk and informed him that locomotive unit SP 7551 was "dead-in-consist" and could not be started. The engineer testified that the crew attempted to determine the reason the unit would not start but was unsuccessful. The yard clerk instructed the crew to use another unit (SP 8278) that was in the yard next to the three-unit consist. The yard clerk then informed the assistant chief dispatcher, who had come on duty in Los Angeles at 10:30 p.m., of the condition of SP 7551 and of the use of SP 8278. The assistant chief dispatcher testified that he was concerned that with only three locomotive units the train could not take the 69 loaded hopper cars farther than Denis (see figure 1), and so he decided to alter the plan to supply locomotive power for Extra 7551 East that had been arranged by the dispatcher on the previous shift. Rather than have the crew pick up an additional locomotive unit at Palmdale Two, the assistant chief dispatcher arranged for a helper locomotive to move toward Mojave, meet Extra 7551 East at Oban, and assist the train up the ascending grade to Hiland and through the Cajon Pass. The assistant chief dispatcher testified that he made this decision based on his belief that the tonnage of Extra 7551 East was about 8,900 tons, a figure that he calculated based on his experience with the product. He further testified that even though he had a copy of a yard list prepared by the yard clerks the previous week when they released the cars indicating a trailing tonnage of 6,151 tons, he believed that figure to be an estimated weight that would have been overridden when the bill of lading information was placed in the computer system. According to his testimony,


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 he determined the number of locomotive units that would be needed to move the train up the grade based on the 8,900 tons. He testified also that he had never previously recalculated the tonnage of a train to determine the number of locomotives that would be needed. He stated that he further believed that the crew had been provided with an upgraded weight reflecting the figure of 8,900 tons. He did not communicate with the crew nor did he use the computer system, which was available to him at his desk in Los Angeles, to determine the tonnage figure that had been provided to the crew.

After conducting an initial terminal air brake test, the crew of Extra 7551 East departed Mojave yard (MP 381.3) at 12:15 a.m., on May 12, en route to Fleta (MP 384.4) with a locomotive consisting of units SP 8278, SP 7551, SP 7549, and SP 9340 configured in that order from east to west. (The engineer testified that because he was not told to do anything with unit SP 7551, he kept it in the consist.) The engineer was operating from the lead unit, SP 8278, en route to Fleta. Because maintenance-of-way equipment was occupying the east end of the siding at Fleta, the dispatcher instructed the crew to continue eastward to Ansel (MP 390.4) and enter a side track at that location to clear the main track for traffic. According to the engineer, Extra 7551 East arrived at Ansel at 12:40 a.m., waited for the main track traffic to pass, and departed Ansel at 1:15 a.m. to return to Fleta. On the return trip to Fleta, SP 9340 was the lead unit in the consist, and the engineer operated from that unit. Because the maintenance-of-way equipment was still occupying the east end of the siding at Fleta, the crew was unable to position their locomotive units on the east end of the train to continue their eastbound trip. It was necessary, therefore, for the crew to enter the west end of the siding (see Figure 2), couple their units to that end of the 69 hopper cars, return westbound to Mojave yard, reposition their locomotives units at that location, and then continue their eastbound train movement. The engineer testified that before departing Fleta, the train line pressure was charged but an air brake test was not conducted. The engineer stated that while operating from unit SP 9340 on the return trip to Mojave, the dynamic brakes were intermittent: "It would load and then the dynamics would drop out on the unit." (Additional discussion occurs under Mechanical Information.) The engineer testified that after the locomotive consist was repositioned and coupled to the cars in Mojave yard, a test for leakage of the train line pressure and an initial terminal air brake test were performed. According to the engineer, none of the crewmembers expressed concern about the tests. After waiting for an inbound train to clear the main track, Extra 7551 East departed Mojave at about 3:35 a.m. with the engineer operating the train from the lead unit, SP 8278. The conductor was


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 seated in the cab across from the engineer; the brakeman was seated in the cab of the third unit, SP 7549. According to the engineer, the brakeman was seated in the third unit to keep warm because the second unit, SP 7551, was not operating. The engineer stated that the dynamic brakes on SP 8278 were "working," and that when he asked the brakeman about the condition of the dynamic brakes on SP 7549, the brakeman replied, "It's revving." The engineer further stated that he did not conduct a visual observation of SP 7549 to determine if its dynamic brakes were operative. Extra 7551 East proceeded to Oban, and the dispatcher instructed the crew to move into the siding at that location to await a westbound train that was being assisted by a helper unit; the helper unit would be cut off and used to assist Extra 7551 East over the Cajon Pass.

Activities of Helper Unit.—At 1:30 a.m., on May 12, 1989, an SP crew, consisting of a locomotive engineer and brakeman, reported for duty at West Colton yard. The crew was transported in a company van from West Colton yard to Dike (MP 481) (see figure 1), arriving at that location at about 2:30 a.m. The crew took charge of a two-unit locomotive consist, SP 7443 (facing west) and SP 8317 (facing east), that was to be used in helper service (assisting trains traversing Cajon Pass). The crew (hereinafter referred to as the helper engineer and the helper brakeman) was instructed by the train dispatcher to operate from Dike to Palmdale Two (MP 417.3) and then to assist a westbound train, Extra 8240 West, between Palmdale Two and Oban (MP 399.9). The helper engineer had been informed by the engineer whom he had relieved that the dynamic brakes on unit SP 8317 were inoperative. The movement from Palmdale Two to Oban was uneventful, and the crewmembers had no concern about the operation of the train. At about 5:06 a.m., the dispatcher instructed the helper engineer to couple the helper locomotive onto the rear of an eastbound train, Extra 7551 East, that was waiting in a siding at that location for helper service through the Cajon Pass.

The helper engineer testified that he did not receive any information from either the head-end engineer or the dispatcher regarding the tonnage of Extra 7551 East nor did he request that information. There was no SP requirement that he be furnished that information. He stated that he did not normally operate over this territory and, therefore, did not know if it was customary to receive that information. He stated further that for the territory over which he normally operated, he usually received that information, and that if he did not, he would request it.

Movement of Extra 7551 East From Oban to Hiland.—After the helper engineer radioed the head-end engineer and informed him that the helper locomotive was coupled onto the rear of Extra 7551 East, an airbrake test was performed; neither engineer noted any deficiencies in the operation of the brakes during the test. Upon receiving a clear signal, Extra 7551 East departed the siding at Oban. At about 5:30 a.m., the helper engineer


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 informed the head-end engineer, by radio, that the trailing units had cleared the siding. The helper engineer testified that his locomotive was in the eighth throttle notch (full throttle) before entering onto the mainline. The head-end engineer and the conductor were still on the lead unit, SP 8278, and the head-end brakeman remained on the third unit, SP 7549. The helper engineer and the helper brakeman were located in the trailing unit, SP 7443, of the helper consist. The helper engineer stated that the trip from Oban to Hiland (MP 463) was uneventful.

The Train Derailment

Testimony indicates that there was no communication between the head-end engineer and the helper engineer from the time Extra 7551 East left the siding at Oban until about 7:03 a.m. when the head-end engineer was cresting the hill at Hiland. The head-end engineer stated that he crested the hill at Hiland (MP 463) at 25 mph or 5 mph below the speed he believed was allowed based on the information he had about the train—6,151 trailing tonnage and four units (two head-end units and the two helper units) with full dynamic brakes and one head-end unit with intermittent dynamic brakes. As he crested the hill, the head-end engineer began using his dynamic brakes and initiated a 6-lb reduction of the air brake pipe pressure. He then asked the helper engineer if he had "…all of your dynamics…." The helper engineer responded, "Yeah, I'm in full." The head-end engineer testified that based on the helper engineer's response he believed that both helper units had operative dynamic brakes and had no reason to believe otherwise. He had not been informed by either the dispatcher or helper engineer that one of the helper units had inoperative dynamic brakes, and he did not inquire about the condition of the dynamic brakes on the trailing units. The helper engineer stated that he did not believe it was necessary for him to alert the head-end engineer of the status of the dynamic brakes on the helper unit because he (the helper engineer) believed the dispatcher would have already made that information known to the head-end engineer. The assistant chief dispatcher, who arranged for the helper unit to assist Extra 7551 East, testified, "I think the normal procedure would be for the helper engineer to relay that information to the road engineer, certainly not the train dispatcher." SP had no requirement that the dispatcher record or disseminate this information.

As the train continued descending the hill, the speed of the train increased to about 30 mph and the head-end engineer increased the brake pipe pressure reduction to 10 psi. According to the head-end engineer, the speed of the train held at 30 mph for a short time and then began to increase. He then increased the brake pipe pressure reduction to about 14 psi. He continued to increase the brake pipe pressure reduction gradually. Each time he reduced the brake pipe pressure, the train's speed would slow slightly and then it would begin to increase again. By the time he reached Canyon, he had reduced the brake pipe pressure a total of 18 psi, but the train was traveling at a speed of 31 mph and accelerating. The head-end engineer stated to Safety Board investigators, "As you're coming down Canyon [MP 469], there are a few places there where it [the train] will run on you, meaning that it's less curvy…you no longer had that resistance of the curves so the train will pick up a little speed, but I was compensating fine." As the


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 train entered straight track, around MP 447, the speed of the train increased, and the engineer began increasing the brake pipe pressure reduction. He stated, "I kept waiting for it [the train] to settle down….I was already up to 20 pounds. Now I knew that was probably enough when that train should start bogging [slowing] down." According to the head-end engineer, he then went into a full service reduction (26 psi). He stated further, "When I made a full service and it wasn't slowing down, we realised that…this train wasn't going to stop." About 7:30 a.m., based on the readout of the event recorder, as the train speed reached 45 mph, the helper engineer, without communicating with the head-end engineer, placed the train brakes in emergency. According to the helper engineer, he did not communicate to the head-end engineer that he was going to place the train brakes in emergency because "at that point there might have been something wrong up there and the speed we were going, corrective action had to be taken and soon…" He further stated that he did not believe that communication prior to that time was necessary because by observing the brake pipe gauge on the rear end, he could tell that the head-end engineer was attempting to take corrective action. According to the head-end engineer, after the helper engineer placed the train brakes into emergency. he placed his brake valve in emergency and the train then began to "surge." According to SP, its locomotives are designed so that when the train brakes are placed in emergency, the dynamic brakes are pneumatically blocked out; both engineers testified that they were aware of this feature. The head-end engineer stated that when the train brakes were placed in emergency he believed there were no longer any options available for controlling the speed of the train.

A motorist who routinely travels on a highway that parallels the railroad tracks for some distance and normally sees trains at that time of the morning testified that she observed "…one train…going a lot faster than some I had normally seen before." The motorist, who estimated that the highway was about ¼ to ½ mile from the tracks, also testified that the train was engulfed in what she assumed to be smoke, which she described as light blue in color. The helper brakeman testified that after the helper engineer placed the brakes in emergency. he observed smoke coming from underneath the train. The head-end engineer also testified that when he looked back over his train, he saw a "lot of smoke coming from the train."

The speed of Extra 7551 East continued to increase as the train descended the hill. The head-end engineer stated that when he realized the train was not slowing, he instructed the conductor to "get on the phone and tell them we got a runaway train." According to a transcript of the dispatcher's radio log, at 7:33:21, an attempt was made to contact the Saugus dispatcher but was not successful. At 7:33:48, the conductor contacted the assistant general yard master at West Colton and informed him, "We have a slight problem. I don't know if we can get this train stopped. We're coming out of Dike [MP 481] ." The helper engineer testified that when he overheard the radio transmission to the West Colton yard, he did not believe that the message conveyed the seriousness of the problem and that "I got on there and I called Mayday Mayday to clear the radio waves." He further stated that because the train speed was rapidly increasing, he positioned himself on the floor behind his control stand with his back and head braced against the back panel and his feet braced against the control stand. He stated that he had


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Rh to try and restrict the national expenditures to this amount.

The following are the reported receipts and expenditures of the republic for the years 1880-'81 to 1883-84 inclusive:

As for the sources of national revenue, the customs are understood to yield about one half; taxes on sales and stamps, some $5,000,000; post-offices and telegraph lines, $650,000; lotteries, $800,000; while the receipts from taxes levied by the States (mainly on sales also) amount to from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000, or about one half the receipts from customs.

In respect to the foreign commerce of Mexico, a report on the "Commercial Relations of the United States," issued by the United States Department of State in 1883, says: "Owing to the system, or, rather, to the lack of system, in regard to the collection and publication of customs returns by the national Government, it is impossible for our consuls in Mexico to supply any trust-worthy statistics concerning the foreign commerce

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 the radio in his hand, was calling out the speeds and was attempting to call somebody, and that he remembers "calling out the speed when we hit ninety." The helper brakeman stated that he remained in his seat. The transcript of the dispatcher's radio log indicates that at 7:37:09 the following message was transmitted: "Mayday! Mayday! 7551, West Colton-AGYM [assistant general yard master], we're doing 90 miles per hour' nine zero, out of control, won't be able to stop till we hit Colton." The head-end engineer stated that after the conductor called West Colton, "there was nothing left to do." He further stated that he and the conductor remained in their seats and that he believed the speed of the train reached 100 mph. He stated, "The speedometer only went up to 80, but it was way past that….It was as far as it could go."

As Extra 7551 East approached MP 486.6 and entered a 4-degree right-hand curve, the entire train derailed to the outside of the curve; many of the cars crashed into a neighborhood of houses adjacent to the railroad right-of-way (figures 3 and 4).

The dispatcher's radio log indicated that a call from Extra 7551 East stating that the whole train was on the ground was received at 7:37:55. The helper engineer testified that he made the radio transmission after the derailment and that because he had received no communication from the head end, he instructed the helper brakeman to go to the front of the train.

Shortly after 7:30 a.m., two San Bernardino police detectives, who were traveling westbound on Highland Avenue approaching California Street, observed what they stated appeared to be a large flash of light and a large cloud of dust come from the area af Highland Avenue and west of Macy Street. They continued westbound on Highland Avenue, and as they drove past Macy Street, they observed that an SP train had derailed and had crashed into several houses on Duffy Street. One of the detectives used his police radio to advise his dispatcher of the situation and to request emergency personnel. They parked their vehicle on the north side of Highland Avenue and ran up the railroad levee to evaluate the damage. Several other people had also stopped their vehicles and ran up the levee.

A Southern California Gas Company employee stated that he and another gas company employee were about 100 yards west of Highland Avenue when they observed the train derail at a high rate of speed. He further stated that he immediately ran to the site of the derailment and, along with other unidentified people, helped the engineer who was attempting to pull himself out of the lead locomotive unit. According to the gas company employee, the engineer began looking for his "partner" (who was later identified as the conductor) whom he found fatally injured in the same locomotive unit. After they helped to lay the engineer next to a fence in the rear yard of 2304 Duffy Street to await the arrival of emergency personnel, the gas company employees began shoveling dirt around one of the locomotives to prevent the spilled diesel fuel from spreading. They then began shutting


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CALUMNY


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 off gas lines to the houses that were damaged in the derailment. According to one of the gas company employees, there were no fires associated with the spilled fuel oil or the broken gas lines.

Emergency Response to Train Derailment

The San Bernardino County’s 911 emergency number was called about 7:41 a.m. by a resident who reported that a train was off the tracks and into some houses.

The San Bernardino battalion chief’s unit was the first fire department unit to arrive at the derailment side about 7:48 a.m. The battalion chief stated that in addition to observing the derailed freight train and damaged houses, he noted that a white powdery substance that had been dumped by the train when it derailed was piled over the entire wreckage site. He stated further that he requested a hazardous materials unit to respond to the scene because of the unknown product being carried by the train, the leaking diesel fuel from the overturned locomotives—even though there was no evidence of fire—and the possibility of pipeline involvement. The battalion chief stated that he was aware that a pipeline was in the area of the derailment but was uncertain of its location at that time.

Police units began arriving also about 7:48 a.m. and began setting up road blocks, evacuating occupied houses, and handling crowd control. An estimated 63 persons were ultimately evacuated from 27 houses in the immediate area of the derailment. As other fire companies arrived, they were placed in strategic locations around the accident site. About 7:55 a.m., fire department personnel began a house-to-house search for survivors. About 11 houses had been impacted by the derailing train. At that time, a canvass of the neighborhood and residents found that no one was reported as missing. About 8:01 a.m., however, a parent reported that two children who resided at 2348 Duffy Street were missing. A second search began and about 8:25 a.m., the first child was found dead; about 10:15 a.m., the second child was also found dead.

Meanwhile, about 8:05 a.m., the San Bernardino deputy fire chief arrived on scene, was advised of the situation by the battalion chief, and then assumed control of the emergency as incident commander. He stated that he approached representatives of Calnev and SP, who had arrived on scene between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., and informed them that he was the incident commander in charge. He stated further that by the time he had arrived, the city’s joint response and mutual aid plan had been implemented as a result of the battalion chief’s initial request for additional assistance. The incident commander subsequently established a command post at the corner of Donald and Duffy Streets. The deputy fire chief testified that all subsequent actions by Calnev and SP were coordinated with him. He further testified that because the product that was scattered over the derailment side had been transported in open top hopper cars, he did not believe it was a "serious


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 hazardous material." He was informed initially by SP personnel that the product was potash; later in the day he received a data sheet from the Office of Emergency Services (OES) that identified the product as sodium carbonate.

About 10:40 a.m., the search team was notified that a third person was reported missing at 2326 Duffy Street. Because of the total destruction of the house and the unstable condition of the train cars that were piled up in the area, search and rescue efforts for the missing person at that location were delayed until heavy equipment could be brought in to move some of the damaged structure and train cars.

Representatives from the California OES, which was notified of the accident at 7:45 a.m., through the San Bernardino County Communications Center, arrived on scene about 9:15 a.m., reported to the command post and offered assistance. About 10:15 a.m., OES arranged for two scenting dogs and their trainers to be flown from the San Francisco Bay area. The dogs and their trainers arrived about 3:55 p.m., and the trainers were briefed by the incident commander about the ongoing search and rescue efforts.

Meanwhile, about 2:00 p.m., SP began to set up blocks and tackle to facilitate removal of train debris with a crane. These efforts were halted by the incident commander about 3:00 p.m., before debris removal began, because the incident commander and the OES believed that such efforts might endanger rescue operations. The incident commander decided, and SP and Calnev representatives concurred, that nothing would be moved until the dogs had completed a search of the area.

The dogs alerted rescuers at various times when they sniffed the vicinity of the house at 2326 Duffy Street between 4:20 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Shortly after 9:00 p.m., the rescue workers located a hand projecting through the debris at 2326 Duffy Street. The surrounding area was immediately stabilized. An opening was cleared by paramedics, who sent down oxygen and took vital signs of the trapped person. With the help of power tools, the resident was eventually freed from the debris about 10:34 p.m., about 15 hours after the derailment.

About 11:20 p.m., a rescuer was alerted by a dog in the vicinity of the third head-end locomotive unit. After removal of debris, the head-end brakeman was found dead in that unit about 3:03 a.m., May 13. The dogs worked until about midnight, examining all affected residences and portions of the train. By early morning on Saturday, May 13, the incident commander determined that all areas had been adequately searched, there were no further reports of missing persons, and, consequently, search and rescue efforts were terminated.

Shortly after noon on May 13, before wreckage removal operations began, SP bulldozers and hundreds of sandbags were used to build a dam at the lowest end of the accident site to help contain gasoline should the pipeline become compromised.

The San Bernardino Chapter of the American Red Cross initially learned of the train derailment on commercial radio about 8:43 a.m. At that time,


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 representatives of the Red Cross responded to the scene where they met with the incident commander and were directed to prepare a shelter for 50 to 100 persons. The Red Cross Disaster Coordinator then contacted the Red Cross chapter office and requested additional personnel and logistical support. A temporary shelter was prepared at the local Job Corps building, a mobile canteen/kitchen was established at the accident site, and damage assessment teams were sent to the scene. The Executive Director for the San Bernardino Red Cross stated that they were equipped to handle the emergency and that they received logistical support from the Los Angeles and the Riverside Chapters in the form of a van, a canteen, and food supplies.

Wreckage Clearance/Pipeline Surveillance Operations Following the Train Derailment

May 12, 1989.—When Calnev’s manager of engineering received information regarding the train derailment, he radioed Calnev’s Colton terminal, about 6½ miles from the derailment site, and instructed personnel at that location to shut down the 14-inch pipeline immediately. At 8:30 a.m., pumping operations were stopped, leaving a residual pressure of 1,128 psig at Colton. The manager of engineering then notified Calnev’s manager of operations and the maintenance superintendent of the train derailment; all three individuals proceeded to the accident site to view the derailment and determine the potential impact to the pipeline. According to the manager of operations, when they arrived at the derailment site, it was obvious the pipeline could have been damaged because the pipeline was under a portion of the wreckage, "…most notably a locomotive that came to rest inverted directly over the pipeline" (figure 4). According to the manager of operations, their concern was that if the locomotive had remained intact, it could possibly have protruded into the ground 8 to 10 feet, and they were unsure at that time of the precise depth of the pipeline at that location. According to Calnev personnel, the derailment prevented Calnev from accessing the pipeline and performing any inspections of the pipeline in that location at that time. Calnev’s activities during the morning of May 12, according to the maintenance superintendent, were confined to remaining on site to make sure that no actions occurred on the part of the railroad or other agencies that could further endanger the pipeline. However, Calnev wanted to reduce further the pressure in the pipeline in the area of the derailment. According to the maintenance superintendent, "What we ideally were going to accomplish was to remove all of the product from the pipeline under the derailment area. As events proceeded, it was determined that that was unfeasible."

At 11:30 a.m., a foreman for Arizona Pipeline Company, permanently assigned to work on Calnev projects, arrived on site to assist Calnev personnel in reducing the pressure in the pipeline. The initial plan was to excavate the pipeline at a location 500 to 800 feet south of Highland Avenue (south of the derailment site), install a fitting for the purpose of tapping


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 a hole into the pipeline, and withdraw product at that location. According to the Calnev maintenance superintendent, they were aware, by referring to company pipeline maps, that a check valve was installed in the pipeline immediately north (upstream) of the derailment site at pipeline milepost (MP) 6.9 (figure 5). Calnev officials stated that they believed that removal of the product from the pipeline at the location south of Highland Avenue would cause the check valve to seat (close) thereby isolating the pipeline north of the check valve from the pipeline in the derailment area. Further removal of product from the pipeline would then reduce the pressure in the pipeline in the derailment area. After excavating at the location south of Highland Avenue, Calnev officials determined that the location was not suitable for tapping the pipe because the pipe was buried in the ground at a depth of 14 feet and was inside a steel casing. Calnev officials then moved their activities to the Colton terminal where a 2-inch fitting with a 1¼-inch opening was installed on the 14 inch pipeline, and they subsequently began withdrawing product from the pipeline at that location.

According to Calnev’s maintenance superintendent, after about 120 barrels of product were removed from the pipeline (and loaded into a vacuum truck), the pressure was reduced about 60 psig at the Colton pump station (MP 0.0) and at Cajon Pass (MP 25.7). Because the pipeline pressure had been reduced by an equal amount on both sides of the check valve at MP 6.9, Calnev personnel determined that they had not been successful in seating (closing) the check valve at that location and, consequently, had not been successful in isolating the pipeline in the area of the derailment. The equal reduction in pressure also indicated that the check valves at MP 14.9 and MP 19.2 had not seated.

Believing that they had been unable to withdraw product at a rate adequate to induce product backflow sufficient to fully seat the check valves, Calnev personnel installed a threaded fitting through the new opening and connected it with high pressure hoses in an attempt to withdraw product at a faster rate. According to Calnev personnel, a second vacuum truck load of product (120 barrels) was then withdrawn and comparable results were observed—an equal reduction in pressure on both sides of the check valve at MP 6.9. As a result, Calnev knew that the check valve at MP 6.9 was not closing. Calnev’s maintenance superintendent stated that he then recommended that additional pressure reduction could be achieved by closing the block valve at the Cajon Pass pump station. After the block valve was closed, a third vacuum truck load of product (120 barrels) was withdrawn from the pipeline and a 200-psig reduction in pressure was achieved. Once again, however, the pressure readings at the Cajon station and at the Colton station


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90


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 Rh

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. Happy the man who has been able to learn the causes of things. Vergil—Georgics. II. 490.

CEDAR Cedrus

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = O'er yon bare knoll the pointed cedar shadows Drowse on the crisp, gray moss. | author = Lowell | work = An Indian-Summer Reverie. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = | page = 91 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Thus yields the cedar to the axe's edge. Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle. Henry VI. Pt. III. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 11. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = | page = 91 }}

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = High on a hill a goodly Cedar grewe, Of wond'rous length and straight proportion, That farre abroad her daintie odours threwe; 'Mongst all the daughters of proud Libanon, Her match in beautie was not anie one. Spenser—Visions of the World's Vanitie. St. 7.

CELANDINE Chelidonium

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = Eyes of some men travel far For the finding of a star; Up and down the heavens they go, Men that keep a mighty rout! I'm as great as they, I trow, Since the day I found thee out, Little Flower!—I'll make a stir, Like a sage astronomer. Wordsworth—To the Small Celandine. | author = | work = | place = | note = | topic = | page = 91 }}


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92

CEREMONY

CHANCE


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Rh


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 94


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 CHANGE

) | topic = Change | page = 95 }}


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190 of the republic." Mr. Garden, Consul for Great Britain, in a report to his Government in 1883, on the trade and commerce of Mexico, says, in reference to the difficulties encountered in investigating this subject: "Since 1874 no attempt has been made to do more than estimate the value of imports by that of customs receipts; which, seeing the constant alterations of and additions to the tariff, and the fluctuations in the quantities of goods introduced free of duty, can necessarily only afford a very imperfect basis for calculation." In respect to exports the information is much more satisfactory. An approximative estimate of the results for 1880 was as follows:

The precious metals—coin, bullion, and ores—always constitute the great bulk of what Mexico exports; and the proportion of agricultural products or other merchandise exported is surprisingly small. Thus, out of the total value of exports for 1884, estimated by Consul-General Sutton at $39,716,000, nearly three fourths, or $28,452,000, were credited to the precious metals, and only $11,264,000 to all other commodities; and of these

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 * 1) CHAOS ##


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98


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Rh


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 100

{{Hoyt quote | num = | text = E'en as he trod that day to God, So walked he from his birth, In simpleness, and gentleness and honor And clean mirth. Kipling—Barrack Room Ballads. Dedication to Wolcott Balestier. (Adaptation of an earlier one.)


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Rh last the largest proportion always consists of articles produced near the seaboard, or near the line of the "City of Mexico and Vera Cruz Railroad." During recent years, and since the construction of the so-called American railroads, the increase in the exports from Mexico, of products other than the precious metals, has, however, been very notable, and is apparently progressive. But the fact that the exports of Mexico always largely exceed her imports, that the great bulk of the exports are always the precious metals, and that the excess of imports does not represent payment for interest to any extent on any national foreign indebtedness, naturally creates a suspicion that the whole (export) transaction is something abnormal; which may find an explanation in the existence of a class of wealthy absentee landlords, or proprietors, who, living permanently in Paris or Spain, draw rents, tolls, and profits from their Mexican properties, and invest or expend the same in other, or foreign countries. The bulk of the coinage of Mexico—both of silver and of gold—is exported almost as soon as it leaves the mints. Thus, although the average annual coinage of the Mexican mints from 1876 to 1880 was $22,524,694, and since then has been larger ($25,610,000 in 1881-'82), the amount of coin in actual circulation in the country is believed to have never been in excess of

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I.] anxious that her child should grow up duly accomplished, gives it a French nurse, and takes care that no English be spoken in its presence; and not all the blood of all the Joneses can save it from talking French first, as if this were indeed its own mother-tongue. An infant is taken alive from the arms of its drowned mother, the only waif cast upon the shore from the wreck of a strange vessel; and it learns the tongue of its foster-parents; no outbreak of natural and hereditary speech ever betrays from what land it derived its birth. The child of a father and mother of different race and speech learns the tongue of either, as circumstances and their choice may determine; or it learns both, and is equally at home in them, hardly knowing which to call its native language. The bands of Africans, stolen from their homes and imported into America, lost in a generation their Congo or Mendi, and acquired from their fellow-slaves a rude jargon in which they could communicate with one another and with their masters. The Babel of dialects brought every year to our shores by the thousands of foreigners who come to seek a new home among us, disappear in as brief a time, or are kept up only where those who speak them herd together in separate communities. The Irish peasantry, mingled with and domineered over by English colonists, governed under English institutions, feeling the whole weight, for good and for evil, of a superior English civilization, incapacitated from rising above a condition of poverty and ignorance without command of English speech, unlearn by degrees their native Celtic tongue, and adopt the dialect of the ruling and cultivated class.

No one, I am confident, can fail to allow that this is a true account of the process by which we acquire our "mother-tongue." Every one recognizes, as the grand advantage connected with the use of language, the fact that in it and by it whatever of truth and knowledge each generation has learned or worked out can be made over into the possession of the generation following. It is not necessary that each of us study the world for himself, in order to apprehend and classify the varied objects it contains, with their qualities and relations, and invent designations for them. This has


text: Observations on Man (6th edition)/Part I/Chapter II/Section V


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 obliquus act, greater when these are relaxed, and the internus acts. The degree of sensibility both in the membrane itself, and in the whole organ, is probably greater when the tension is greater.

The vibrations of the air seem to shake off the mucus which lodges upon the membrana tympani in the new-born child, just as the action of light fits the cornea, and aqueous humour, for vision.

The eustachian tube serves to supply the cavity of the tympanum with air, to carry off the vapour which exhales into it, and perhaps to increase the effects of sounds by the tremors in its cartilaginous extremity, and particularly those of the person’s own voice.

The stapes, its muscle, and the foramen ovale, seem designed to convey the vibrations of the membrana tympani to the auditory nerve, in a precise manner. But the vibrations excited in its æther may be much more frequent than those of the membrana tympani, as has already been observed.

There does not appear to be any method for conveying air into the cavities of the vestibulum cochlea, and semi-circular canals, nor any necessity or use for it there. The great hardness of the bony part of the organ of hearing may make it more easily susceptible of vibrations. Agreeably to which, it may be observed, that we can hear imperfectly, though the ears, nose, and mouth, be all stopped, and consequently all access to the membrana tympani by the vibrations of the air denied. The vibrations are here excited probably in the cartilages of the auricle and meatus, and in the bones of the skull, and thus communicated to the cochlea, and semi-circular canals. It seems to agree with this, that some partially deaf persons can hear best, when driven in a coach over stones or gravel; i.e. when all the parts of their bodies, and particularly those of the bones, are put into a vibrating motion.

The bony part of the organ of hearing seems to come to its full size early in life. Is not the final cause of this, that one part may, on account of its size, be most disposed to vibrate with one tone, another with another? And does not this hold particularly in respect of the lamina spiralis? For thus the same tone would be affixed and associated to the same nerves, so as to affect them peculiarly, from childhood or youth to old age.

we may consider, first, the different strength of sounds. Now, as this arises from the different condensation of the air in the pulses, so the effect which it has upon the membrana tympani, the membrane of the foramen ovale, and the nerves of

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 hearing, must be different likewise, and afford the mind a sufficient foundation for distinguishing sounds in respect of strength and feebleness.

Secondly, the gravity and acuteness of sounds arise from the slowness or frequency of the vibrations. Now, as the vibrating of the membrana tympani are synchronous to those of the air, they may either excite synchronous ones in the particles of the auditory nerves, and thus be distinguished from each other in respect of frequency by the mind; or if every pulse of the air, and oscillation of the membrana tympani, excite innumerable infinitesimal vibrations in the auditory nerves, the renewal of these at different intervals according to the different gravity or acuteness of the sound will, however, afford a like criterion.

It may be remarked, that grave sounds are in general strong, acute ones feeble. For the bodies which yield grave sounds are in general large, and consequently will make an impression upon the air by a large number of trembling particles.

Thirdly, all very loud noises are disagreeable. Now it is easy to conceive, that very violent agitations of the membrana tympani may produce the solution of continuity in the small medullary particles of the auditory nerve. An inflammation in the small vessels of the auditory nerve may render it so susceptible of violent vibrations, as to be hurt by gentle sounds, as sometimes happens in distempers; and to produce that acuteness in the sense of hearing, which answers to the nyctalopia in the eye.

Fourthly, Single musical, i.e. uniform sounds, whether vocal or instrumental, are pleasant in proportion to their loudness, provided this be not excessive. We must therefore suppose here, that the repeated impulses of the air, at equal distances, make the vibrations approach to the solution of continuity; yet still so as to fall short of it.

Fifthly, Two musical notes sounded together, suppose upon an organ or violin, afford a greater original pleasure than one, provided the ratios of their vibrations be sufficiently simple. Thus any note sounded with its eighth, fifth, fourth, third major or minor, sixth major or minor, affords pleasure, the ratios being here, respectively, those of 1 to 2, 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 4 to 5, 5 to 6, 3 to 5, and 5 to 8, which are all very simple ones. But a note with its flat or sharp, second, or seventh, or flat fifth, is originally disagreeable. It may be observed also, that concords seem to be originally pleasant in proportion to the simplicity of the ratios by which they are expressed, i.e. in the order above set down. Hence we may perhaps suspect, that even the concords were originally unpleasant to the ear of the child, from the irregularity of the vibrations which they impress upon the membrana tympani, and consequent solution of continuity; and that they fell at last within the limits of pleasure, as many other pains do, by repetition. For thus those concords in which the ratios are simplest would become pleasant first, and the others would continue to

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 excite pain, or to border upon it. It is agreeable to this, that discords become at last pleasant to the ears of those that are much conversant in music, and that the too frequent recurrency of concords cloys.

Sixthly, Concords sounded in succession seem to have the same effect, in kind, upon the ear, as when sounded together, only less in degree. But discords in succession do not offend, unless the chromatic succession of half notes, or some such remarkable ones, and even these please at last. All this follows easily from the last paragraph; and the present paragraph, with the two last, taken together, contain the principal grounds of the natural and original pleasures of music. The pleasures which it derives from association will be considered hereafter.

ought to decrease in the reciprocal duplicate ratio of the distance, did they not receive some support from the reflection of the bodies over which they pass. This makes them decrease in a less ratio; however, they do decrease in general with the distance; and this decrease, being an associate of the increase of distance, ought to suggest it to the imagination. And, agreeably to this, we may observe, that, when the wind opposes the sound of bells, they appear farther off; when a person calls through a speaking trumpet, he appears nearer, than at the true distance.

As to the position of the sounding body we have no clear or certain criterion, unless it be very near us; so as that the pulses may strike one ear, or one part of the head, considerably stronger than another. Hence we judge of the position of the speaker, or sounding body, by the eye, or by some other method independent on the ear. And thus, if from some mistaken presumption a voice, or sound, shall be deemed to come from a quarter different from the true place of it, we shall continue in that error from the strength of that mistaken presumption.

By laying these things together, and also considering farther, that indistinctness in articulate sounds is an associated mark of distance, we may see how ventriloqui, or persons that speak in their throats, without moving their lips, impose upon the audience. Their voice is faint and indistinct, and therefore appears to come from a more distant quarter than the speaker. The hearers look about therefore, and, being surprised, their imagination fixes strongly upon that corner, or cavity, which appears most plausible; and afterwards they continue to impose upon themselves by the strength of this prejudice.

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may suppose the external and internal ear to be so formed, as that all the differences in the vibrations of the air, which arrive at the ear, may affect the auditory nerves with corresponding differences. Let us therefore first consider in what manner different sounds impress different vibrations upon the air.

First, then, Since not only the parts about the throat, but those of the mouth, cheeks, and even of the whole body, especially of the bones, vibrate in speaking, the figure of the vibrations impressed upon the air by the human voice will be different from that of the vibrations proceeding from a violin, flute, &c. provided the distance be not too great. This therefore may be considered as one help for distinguishing articulate sounds from all others.

Secondly, Articulation consists in breaking out from a whisper into sound, or closing the sound in different manners, the organs of speech being put also into different shapes, so as to join the differences mentioned in the last paragraph with various eruptions and interruptions, ascents and descents of sound. And thus each letter may be distinguished from every other by hearing.

Thirdly, It is agreeable to all this, that it is difficult at great distances to distinguish the tone of one musical instrument from another, or of any from the tone of a human voice, cæteris paribus; or to distinguish articulate sounds from one another. For at great distances the vibrations of the air are circular to sense, and all the ascents, descents, eruptions and interruptions of sound, which distinguish one compound sound from another, are confounded by numberless reflections from the intermediate bodies.

Fourthly, We may observe, that as the preserving the distinction of place is the chief end of the coats and humours in the organ of sight, so the distinction of time is of the greatest importance in hearing. It seems probable therefore, that the membrana tympani, small bones, and their muscles, are so contrived, as by their actions to preserve the distinction of time, i.e. to extinguish strong sounds, and to keep up weak ones, so as that the last may not be too much overpowered by the continuance of the first; just as the treble notes of a harpsichord would be by the bass ones, did not the bits of cloth affixed to the jacks check the vibration of the strings in due time.

Having now shown how articulate sounds may be distinguished from one another, and from all other sounds; I next observe, that, in fact, the speakers do not pronounce so articulately and distinctly in common conversation, as to furnish the hearers with the requisite criterions according to the foregoing theory; but that we arrive at a facility of understanding one another’s discourse, chiefly by the power of association.

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192 $15,000,000 or $20,000,000. Much of the Mexican coined silver has, as is well known, been heretofore in large demand to meet the world's requirements for trade with China; but what has come back to Mexico for it in exchange is somewhat of a commercial puzzle.

The present annual value of the total import trade of Mexico is probably not in excess of $35,000,000, of which the United States already controls a large proportion. Thus, for the year 1883, the returned value of all merchandise exported from the United States to Mexico was $16,587,630; of which $14,370,992 was "domestic" and $2,216,638 "foreign" merchandise. This was, however, a year of very active railroad construction, with an abnormal employment of Mexican labor, and large disbursements of American capital in the country. Since then there has been a marked falling off in exports from the United States (less than $13,000,000 in 1884), which has been attributed partly to the withholding of orders in anticipation of the ratification of a commercial treaty between the two countries, and partly to the great depression of business consequent on the large decline in the price of silver.

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