"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
h.li...
On Fri, 16 Feb 2007, Bruce Fletcher wrote:

Tom Anderson wrote:

Nonsense! Dangerous modern rubbish! Stagecoaches, sir! Quite
satisfactory!

I agree. No less an authority than Dr Dionysius Lardner has warned us of
the dangers of high speed travel.

A much maligned character. What i didn't know, though, is that the GWR
brought Charles Babbage on board to analyse the behaviour of the broad
gauge:

http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/history/ikb/broad


Apparently he caused a lot of problems for other passengers as he he
operated his portable difference engine during the journey, it took up most
of the quiet zone...

Paul