632 THE APPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL FORCES. [BOOK v. 



and thence on to the most south-easterly point of Great Britain, 

 beneath part of the Atlantic ; the other line ramifies in the same way, 

 starting from the Gulf of Persia, by several air lines which go to 

 Kussia, Germany, and Syria, and China and Japan are connected by 

 Northern Kussia. Lastly, Australia and New Zealand itself is in com- 

 munication with the Indian lines, so that a message sent from Sydney 

 or Auckland, arrives directly at London, New York or Boston, and 

 thence by the telegraph crossing the American continent to San 

 Francisco, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean ; 270 of longitude, or 

 more than 30,000 kilometres, actual distance, are traversed by elec- 

 tric signals under special conditions in less than one hour. Tn practice, 

 however, a much longer period of time is found necessary. The 

 following fact will suffice to give an idea of the rapidity of electric 

 correspondence : 



At a banquet given upon the opening of the telegraph between 

 Australia and London, and at which those interested in the under- 

 taking were present, and which was held at the same time in London 

 and Adelaide, a telegraphing instrument was placed behind the Presi- 

 dent's chair in London. At the opening of the banquet, a congra- 

 tulatory message was sent to Australia ; before the end of the 

 banquet, the reply with a concluding hurrah ! returned from Adelaide. 

 It is clear from what has been stated, that a gap is still to be 

 filled before the entire circumference of the globe is inclosed in the 

 network. x America and Asia do not as yet communicate directly 

 with each other. But four lines, two of which are entirely submarine, 

 have been projected, and the Pacific Ocean will doubtless be soon 

 traversed by electric currents, as the Atlantic has already been for 

 eight years. In course of time, messages will arrive in London and 

 Paris from all the remotest parts of the globe, and we shall read 

 in the papers in the evening an account of the principal events which 

 have happened during the day (and night too) in all five parts of the 

 world. It may be left to each to conjecture what will be the in^ 

 fluence in the future of this continuous communication on political, 

 commercial, and industrial relations or in one word, on our whole 

 progressive civilisation. 



