WILLIAM Sn-.MENS, F.R.S. 24 \ 



back of the tire is utilized to supply the gas flame with a current 

 of hot air an arrangement \\lnChit would take too much space 

 to describe, but which I shall l>e happy to place at the disposal 

 of the association recently formed with the laudable object of 

 improving our winter atmosphere. 



I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



C. WILLIAM SIEMENS. 



12, QUBKN ANNE'S GATE, S.W., Nov. 2, 1880. 



TELEGRAPH WIRES. 



To THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES." 



SIR, Among the causes of danger and inconvenience which 

 the snowstorm of yesterday has created, none will be felt more 

 keenly by the public than the partial interruption of the telegraphic 

 communication throughout the country, and it may be interesting 

 to inquire whether such occasional interruption of telegraphic 

 traffic is a necessary evil connected with this great achievement of 

 recent times, or is attributable to preventable causes. It would 

 not be difficult to prove that such interruptions are entirely pre- 

 ventable by a reconstruction of our telegraphic system in a more 

 permanent manner. This would involve considerable expenditure, 

 it is true, but an expenditure that would very soon recoup itself 

 through a greatly reduced cost of maintenance. There would be 

 immunity, moreover, from those causes of interruption, great and 

 small, which constitute a daily source of trouble to the operator, 

 and which, upon such occasions as yesterday, throw us suddenly 

 back to the condition of the pre-telegraphic age. By the substi- 

 tution of underground for suspended line wires, the causes of 

 uncertainty attaching still to the land telegraphic system of the 

 day would be entirely removed, together with the danger and 

 unsightliness inseparable from tall wooden poles strained to the 

 utmost by their load of suspended wires, placed along our railways 

 and public thoroughfares. Proof is not wanting in favour of an 

 VOL. in. K 



