PREFATORY NOTE. 

 BY PROFESSOR J. A. EWIXG, F.R.S. 



THREE papers, each in its way representative, have been chosen 

 for republicatioa from amongst Fleeming Jenkin's technical 

 writings. The first gives, in popular form, an account of the 

 scientific development of submarine telegraphy, a work in which 

 he took a large share during the earlier part of his professional 

 life. Apart from its historical and personal interest, this paper 

 is still valuable as a description of present-day practice in cable 

 making and cable laying. In the second paper, on Telpherage,' 

 Jenkin introduced to the public the invention on which his later 

 years were spent : at the date to which the paper belongs he had 

 satisfied himself, by trial on a large scale, that his ideas were 

 practicable, and he was then busy in elaborating the details. 

 The third paper is a somewhat abstruse but most important 

 contribution to engineering theory in a department already 

 occupied by Jenkin in an earlier work. Though of no popular 

 interest it is second in value to none of his writings, and only 

 needs wider publicity to be more generally appreciated by 

 engineers. The papers are reprinted without substantial 

 change ; only a few obvious clerical errors have been corrected. 

 Following the three reprints is an abstract of Fleeming 

 Jenkin's other scientific writings, which has been prepared with 

 the purpose of showing, in some detail, the character and place 

 of his contributions to science, and of facilitating reference to 

 the original papers. 



VOL. n. 



