Inquest Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway

rocket appeared before alterations in 1834.

eventually little after noon wilton arrived @ inquest, , gave full account of incident. lord granville (half-brother of marquess of stafford) told jury huskisson had been suffering numbness in leg previous operation, , may have caused apparent problems movement. no witnesses recollected seeing signal flags raised of locomotives involved, including rocket, although system of warning flags supposed have been in place.

although eyewitnesses expressed view joseph locke, driving rocket, @ fault, following few words coroner jury returned verdict of accidental death. directors , engineers of l&m explicitly absolved of blame, , no deodand attached locomotive or railway.

after inquest over, emily huskisson found 2 speeches in william huskisson s jacket pocket, had been planning deliver following inaugural journey. first brief tribute james watt, inventor of condensing steam engine, , invention had made possible. second longer speech. marked burnt @ death , 1 of last things husband had written emily huskisson felt herself unable so.

... from first warm disinterested advocate present great experiment. has been made, , difficulties of no ordinary nature overcome, may permitted satisfaction on humble zealous part took in first promoting attempt ... felt application parliament railway, though technically private petition, involved great public interests—those interests special duty of board of trade countenance , encourage, , avowedly on ground not consider inconsistent character of minister ... need in present state of commerce of country, specify these interests are? of hear me know difficulties have struggle in maintaining successful competition foreign rivals. know can maintained incessant industry, unwearied diligence, increasing skill in our manufacturing population; know efforts unavailing without greatest economy not of money of time, in operations of trade ... in short, principle of railway of commerce itself—it multiplies enjoyment of mankind increasing facilities , diminishing labour [goods] produced , distributed throughout world.

huskisson s death major incident, , reported worldwide. (william huskisson reported first railway fatality, including in ordinarily reliable sources. untrue; @ least 2 people killed on liverpool , manchester railway prior opening public. earliest recorded fatality caused steam locomotive unnamed woman, described blind american beggar , fatally injured train on stockton , darlington railway on 5 march 1827. high-profile figure killed @ high-profile event, huskisson first railway fatality reported.) news of incident gradually spread across country, railways , steam power, matters had been of interest involved in industries directly affected them, became major topic discussion across britain. first time, population whole became aware cheap, rapid travel possible, , journey had been extremely expensive , taken better part of day affordable , took less 2 hours. in afternoon of 16 september, day after inauguration of line, liverpool , manchester railway began operating regular scheduled service. first train carried 130 passengers (mainly members of society of friends attending meeting in manchester), tickets liverpool manchester costing 7s (about £29 in 2017 terms) apiece. end of first week of operation, 6,104 passengers had travelled on railway.

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