no shocks in the fiftieth car of the train on any stop,
whether on the level or on a gradient. The committee in charge
reported that the best type of brake for long freight trains was one
operated by air, in which the valves were actuated by electricity, but
they expressed doubt of the practicability of using electricity on
freight trains. The Westinghouse Company then proceeded to quicken the
action of the triple-valve, operated by air only, so that stops with
fifty-car trains could be made without shock, and without electrically
operated valves; and they were so successful in this respect that,
towards the end of the same year, 1887, with a train of fifty
vehicles, stops were made without shock, fully equalling in quickness
and shortness of distance run any that had been made at the trials by
the electrically operated brakes.

In 1889 some further tests were made by Sir Douglas Galton with the
automatic vacuum-brake, on a practically level portion of the
Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire railway (now the Great Central).
The train was composed of an engine, tender and forty carriages, the
total length over buffers being 1464 ft., and the total weight 574
tons, of which 423 tons were braked. At a speed of about 32 m. an hour
this train was brought to a standstill in twelve seconds after the
application of the brakes, in a distance of 342 ft.

BRAKELOND, JOCELYN DE (fl. 1200), English monk, and author of a
chronicle narrating the fortunes of the monastery of Bury St Edmunds
between 1173 and 1202. He is only known to us through his own work. He
was a native of Bury St Edmunds; he served his novitiate under Samson of
Tottington, who was at that time master of the novices, but afterwards
sub-sacrist, and, from 1182, abbot of the house. Jocelyn took the habit
of religion in 1173, during the time of Abbot Hugo (1157-1180), through
whose improvidence and laxity the abbey had become impoverished and the
inmates dead to all respect for discipline. The fortunes of the abbey
changed for the better with the election of Samson as Hugo's successor.
Jocelyn, who became abbot's chaplain within four months of the election,
describes the administration of Samson at considerable length. He tells
us that he was with Samson night and day for six years; the picture
which he gives of his master, although coloured by enthusiastic
admiration, is singularly frank and intimate. It is all the more