534 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



age speed of all cargo steamers have increased remarkably. Very inter- 

 esting statistics on this point were given to the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science last year, at Dover, by Sir William White, 

 in the Presidential Address of Section G. We may say, without repeat- 

 ing details, that during the last half of the nineteenth century the 

 breadth of the Atlantic has practically been diminished one-half. 



In 1857 the Union Company contracted to carry mails in thirty- 

 seven days to the Cape. Now the contract time is nineteen days. This 

 again diminishes the distance by one-half. As an instance of the re- 

 markable change which has been made in steamships within forty years, 

 it may be mentioned that the first 'Norman' of the Union Company took 

 forty-two days to reach the Cape, while the present 'Norman' has covered 

 the journey in fourteen days twenty-one hours. I need not specify 

 particularly the equivalent acceleration of speed upon other great steam- 

 ship lines. All our sea distances have been shortened 50 to 60 per cent, 

 in an identical way. 



It is not too bold to predict that the Atlantic, from Queenstown to 

 New York, will, before long, be steamed in less than four days. The 

 question has now resolved itself simply into this — will it pay shipowners 

 to burn so much coal as to ensure these rushing journeys before a 

 cheaper substitute for coal is found? We know that a torpedo-destroyer 

 has been driven through the water at the rate of forty-three miles an 

 hour by the use of the turbo-motor instead of reciprocating engines. 

 Consequently an enormous increase in the present speed of the great 

 Atlantic liners is certain if the new system can be applied to large ves- 

 sels. By such very swift steamers, and by the example they will set to all 

 established and competing steamship companies, the journey to Canada 

 and subsequently to all other parts of the Empire will be continually 

 quickened, until predictions which would now sound extravagant will 

 in a few years be simple every-day facts. 



We must turn next to the subject of telegraphic communication es- 

 pecially as it relates to the British Empire. 



The mazes of land-lines and of sea and ocean cables are too 

 numerous and intricate to be described in detail. Also the gen- 

 eral effect of this means of bringing distant people together, 

 and its transcendent importance for political, strategic and trade 

 purposes, need not be too much insisted upon in this place, 

 so obvious must they be to everyone. Yet, great as has been its power 

 and advantage in all of those directions in the past, it is certain 

 that still greater development and still greater service to the world 

 will follow in the future even from existing systems, not to speak of 

 their certain and enormous possibilities of growth. In the celerity 

 of the actual despatch of a message we need not ask for nruch improve- 

 ment. Lightning speed will be probably sufficient for our go-ahead 



