Company was held on 6 January 1849. Lengthy technical discussion took place, in which Gill stated that Clark and Varley were prepared to contract to complete the atmospheric system and maintain it over a section of the line. There were, Gill said, twenty-five other inventors anxious to have their creations tried out on the line. The meeting lasted for eight hours, but finally a vote was taken: a majority of shareholders present were in favour of continuing with the system, 645 to 567 shares. However, a large block of proxies were held by shareholders who did not wish to attend the meeting, and with their votes abandonment was confirmed by 5,324 to 1,230. That was the end of the atmospheric system on the South Devon Railway. Rats It is often asserted among enthusiasts' groups that one factor in the failure of the leather flap was rats, attracted to the tallow, gnawing at it. Although rats are said to have been drawn into the traction pipe in the early days, there was no reference to this at the crisis meeting described above. Historian Colin Divall believes there to be "no documentary evidence whatsoever" for rats causing such problems on the railway. Technical details Wormwood Scrubs demonstration line The piston carriage on the demonstration line was an open four-wheeled track. No controls of any kind are shown on a drawing. The beam that carried the piston was called the "perch", and it was attached directly to the axles, and pivoted at its centre point; it had a counterweight to the rear of the attachment bracket (called a "coulter"). Dalkey line The customary train consist was two coaches, the piston carriage, which included a guard's compartment and third class accommodation, and a second class carriage, with end observation windows at the rear. There was no first class carriage. The guard had a screw brake, but no other control. Returning (descending) was done under gravity, and the guard had a lever which enabled him to swing the piston assembly to one side, so that the descent was made with the piston outside the tube. Saint Germain line The section put into service, Le Pecq to Saint Germain, was almost exactly the same length as the Dalkey line, and was operated in a similar way except that the descent by gravity was made with the piston in the tube so that air pressure helped retard