8 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



$11,455,220,000. With this enormous development there has also been 

 a steady improvement in the appliances for the safety and comfort of 

 passengers, and the luxury of travelling has touched a high point in the 

 vestibuled trains of this continent. 



What is it that has made it possible to develop raihvaj' traffic to such 

 an enormous extent both as to speed and safety ? The answer to this 

 question involves the knowledge of the great revolution in engineering 

 due to the discovery of the practicability of applying electncity to the 

 transmission of messages over long distances, tirst by means of the elec- 

 tric telegraph, and more recently by means of the telephone. I have 

 heard old Canadians tell of days when a conductor, in out-of-the-way 

 places, not meeting a train at the i^roper crossing-point and not willing 

 to Avait an indefinite time, decided to take the risk and go on, trusting. to 

 îTOod fortune that he should reach the next station before the belated 

 train had passed it. The passengers, I suppose, held themselves in readi- 

 ness to jump. Do we realize in how different a position we are placed 

 to-day, when the electric telegraph flashes along the line the exact posi- 

 tion of the train ? The block system — in spite of our vaunted pro- 

 gressiveness, not yet in universal use on this continent — has been brought 

 to such a pitch of perfection in England that even a mistake on the part 

 of the signalman — the only thing which could vitiate its usefulness — is 

 practically made almost an impossibility by means of mechanical con- 

 trivances which check and regulate his signals. The increase in the 

 safety of railway travelling since the introduction of these improvements 

 may be judged by figures given by Mr. Preece in an address before the, 

 members of the British Association at Bath, in which he says that in the 

 five years ending in 1887 only one pei-son was killed in 85,000,000 railway 

 jouriu'ys. 



The first practical instrument for the transmission of messages was 

 devised by Cooke and Wheatstone in 1837, and in 1838 it was given a 

 trial on the Gi-eat Western Eailway. 



It is very curious to look back sixty years and read an advertisement 

 of the wonders of the Electric Telegraph ]>osted up by the Great 

 Western Eailway Company : — 



The Wonder of the Age ! 



Instantaneous Communication ! 



Under the special patronage of Her Majesty and H.R.H. Priiuc All)ert 



The Galvanic & Electro-magnetic 



Telegraphs 



on the 



Great Western Railway 



may be seen in constant operation, daily, (Sundays excepted) from 9 till 8 



at the 

 Telegraph offices, London Terminus, Paddington, and Telegraph Cottage, Slough 

 Station. 



