1888.89.] Ill 



tion of copper wires, which possess a greater amount of conduc- 

 tivity than iron, and, I believe, bronze, which possesses it still 

 more, distant towns, some so far apart as 600 miles, are brought 

 within speaking distance. If ten years show such rapid pro- 

 gress, what may be the result of the next ten's research. The 

 peculiar law of electrical induction, by which a current sent 

 through a wire creates a sympathetic current in another parallel 

 to it, was one of the difficulties to be contended with in tele- 

 phoning, but which has been overcome. It has been practi- 

 cally taken advantage of on the Lehigh Valley Railway in 

 America, for the transmission of messages to and from trains 

 in motion. The conducting wire is placed upon short poles 

 some ten or twelve feet from the track. The inductive receiver 

 consists of the metal roof of the carriage, or, where no metal 

 roof exists, of a wire extending along the eave of the car. By a 

 combination of the " buzzer " arrangement and a telephone, 

 messages in the Morse character can be received and trans- 

 mitted while the train travels at the rate of sixty miles an hour. 



In the transmission of power by electricity, we have in our 

 own neighbourhood the first electric tramway laid in Britain : 

 that between the Giant's Causeway and Portrush, opened in 

 1883, and in which, by means of a dynamo, the energy of the 

 water power of the Bush River is developed into an electro- 

 motive force. Lines have also been laid at Ryde, Blackpool, 

 and Brighton, while in our own district we have the important 

 line from Newry to Bessbrook. The invention of accumulators, 

 in which electricity can be stored and transmitted, has been 

 utilised for the propulsion of omnibuses, tricycles, launches, and 

 other means of conveyance. 



In electro-metallurgy, dynamos have largely taken the place 

 of batteries for electro-plating, and we now find that they are 

 not only used for the deposition of the precious metals, and for 

 the duplication in copper of finely engraved plates, but other 

 metals are similarly treated. Nickel plating has become a large 

 industry, and is used to give a rust-proof covering to our car 

 and harness mountings, to our cycle fittings, and to our table 



