On the Continent

A party from the Railway Students’ Association of the London School of Economics which recently visited Germany to inspect the railway systems at Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig, had extended to it a very cordial and hospitable welcome by the Chiefs of the various administrations. Facilities were given for a thorough inspection of the railways mentioned, which proved of great interest to the visitors (says the “Railway Gazette”). At the Brandenburg locomotives works—the most modern in Germany—the visitors were shown a very useful and novel device in the form of a washing machine in which the whole under-carriage frame of a locamotive could be placed and washed in boiling soda water in one operation. This machine is said to be the only one of its kind in existence. At Dresden the party listened to a lecture given in English by Dr. Gläsel, at the Psychotechnical Institute, on the methods by which candidates for railway posts are tested, and also were afforded an opportunity of seeing the cars and apparatus used for the tests and examinations. These proved very interesting. The tests are designed under the latest discoveries of the science of psychology to ascertain speed, accuracy, method, memory, will-power, nervousness, etc., of each candidate. They consist mainly of simple actions, e.g., sorting various shaped dises, carrying out written instructions, placing indicators of trains at stations on blank diagrams after seeing position of filled-in diagram previously for a few minutes. The candidates are observed while performing the tests, and although no special knowledge or skill is required in this section the results vary very considerably. In the case of drivers and firemen, a model cab is available from the windows of which the driver sees the signals he is liable to meet with, and electrical apparatus records the promptness with which he uses the control levers, etc. It is claimed that in eighty to ninety per cent. of the results obtained reports of the men's superior officers confirm the accuracy of the results secured by the tests.