464 ANNUAL KECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



at their home in less than three hours, having accomplished 

 the distance at an average of ninety kilometers per hour. 

 Two arrived a little later, and the tenth stopped on the way. 

 The atmospheric circumstances were, it is true, favorable ; 

 the wind was blowing from the south to the north, there 

 were very few clouds, and the temperature quite moderate. 

 The pigeons which accomplished this remarkable flight came 

 from the Somme. In order to obtain a good race of carrier- 

 pigeons, it is considered necessary to cross the Anvers with 

 the Liege breeds. The City Council of Paris is about to 

 offer a prize for the best pigeons which are all of foreign 

 breeds. A prize will perhaps also be offered for the best 

 purely French breeds. La Aeronaute, 1875, 248. 



UNDEEGKOUXD TELEGRAPH LINES. 



A system of laying underground telegraph lines has been 

 devised by Mr. A. Holtzman, of Amsterdam, Holland, which 

 is said to have stood the test of two years' severe practice 

 with most satisfactory results. His method consists sub- 

 stantially in having a trough, or gutter, of cast iron (or other 

 material), which is filled with a peculiar bituminous insulat- 

 ing composition which the inventor calls bred liquide. The 

 trough, or gutter, is placed at the bottom of a ditch dug in 

 the earth, and the telegraph wires, covered with gutta-percha, 

 are separately submerged in the composition; this done, a 

 cover is fastened upon the trough and the ditch filled up 

 with dirt. The composition soon solidifies, and retains the 

 wires in excellent insulation, protecting them, at the same 

 time, perfectly against moisture and decay. The system is 

 also aflirmed to be comparatively inexpensive. A line of 

 some forty miles laid down upon this plan near Amsterdam, 

 after two years of trial, is said to have proved itself complete- 

 ly successful, although laid in a bad and swampy soil. 6 Z>, 

 XXXH., 307. 



EXTINGUISHMENT OF CONFLAGRATIONS. 



An elaborate paper has lately been presented to the Kan- 

 sas City Academy of Sciences, and printed by its order, upon 

 the " Prevention and Extinguishment of Conflagrations," by 

 Mr. Theodore S. Case. In this he considers the various 

 means of prevention, under the following heads : First, by 



