following feat appears worthy of notice. Last January a conversation was carried on by wire over the longest circuit ever worked, the extreme points of which were San Francisco and London. The message sped over an unbroken circuit, strengthened by many relays, from San Fran cisco to New York via Vancouver, B. C., Montreal and Albany; thence from New York it was sent to London via Canso, N. S., and Bristol, England. The dispatches were repeated only at the last two points, which are the landing stations of the Mackay-Bennett cable, and at New York. The average time required for an answer to short sentences was about five minutes. Marvellously quick time over a line of nearly 10,000 miles! It beats the record made some two years ago by a New York merchant who telegraphed to Japan about some goods he was shipping and within six hours received an answer via London and the East.

Such feats of telegraphy are surprising and yet not more so than the results that have lately been achieved by long-distance telephones, even though the distances compared to the long circuits we have just mentioned are very short. In January last, the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. completed their line to Albany, and thus made it possible for one in Boston to speak with a friend in Albany via New York, a distance of over 350 miles. True the voice was not quite so distinct as it ordinarily is between points a shorter distance apart. However, it was heard and distinguished, which was all that could be expected under the circumstances.

In Europe

Speaking of telephones, it may interest our readers to know that there are 400,000 of them at present used in the United States. they are quite common and becoming more so every day.

Progress in electric lighting both by the arc and incandescent method is very rapid. A novel calculation has been made to show the number of lamps in service. An enthusiastic statistician states that if the carbons daily used in arc lighting in the United States were placed end to end they would stretch a distance of about 50 miles. A new company which started January, 1887, is now working 15,000 arc lights. The incandescent lamps, too, are rapidly increasing in number. For theatres and public halls they are invaluable, both as regards convenience and safety, and this has brought about in Italy and some other continental countries special enactments enforcing their exclusive use in such places. It would be impossible to calculate with any degree of accuracy the number of lamps in our country. We see them everywhere, in hotels, in steamboats and in private residences.

But electricity gives not only light but also power, and this motor power every day finds some new application. At present in all the large cities it is sold at very low rates for moving elevators, printing presses and even sewing machines. The largest motors now reach about forty horse power, and, according to the statistics, last year there were 8000 motors in the United States, while at the beginning of the present year 4000 more were in construction or had been ordered. The necessity that the companies find of building up this special business of electric

motor power accounts for the low rates. Without this application the immense plants that are used during the night for illuminating power would during the day be idle and profitless.

Before concluding these items we wish to call attention to two new projects lately set on foot. One proposes by means of electrolysis to precipitate most of the impure and solid matters carried off in the sewers of our large cities. If this can be accomplished, then the waters pouring through these underground channels will leave behind them the impurities and germs of diseases that they now bear along; they will become inoffensive and no longer pollute the streams. Moreover, the materials

left behind can be collected and sold as valuable fertilizers.

The other project is a very small electric railroad elevated on posts to avoid all danger, and, as far as possible, running across the country in a straight line. The cars, for greater safety, will move along three rails, one above and the other two below. On account of their size these cars must of necessity be automatic, and so they will carry motors for propelling, for brakes, etc. Fixed dynamos will produce the currents to work the motors, which are expected to give a speed of about 300 miles an hour. If this project succeeds can we not hope some day to see passenger trains moved by electricity at a much greater rate of speed than the fastest trains of to-day?

MINOR ITEMS.

MR. H. F. Boyer, of H.M.S. "Malabar," has been carrying out experiments with the view of testing the efficiency of a system of submarine communication between ships. The method is his own invention, and in essential features is almost identical with that of Prof. Blake, which we described in these pages last October. It is remarkable how these two gentlemen, by investigations altogether independent of each other, arrived at practically the same solution of this important problem. Prof. Blake in America conceived the design and thought out the details without having the advantage of being able to test them practically on a large scale, while the English officer had opportunities of subjecting his plan to crucial experiments and of proving it successful even in foggy and stormy weather. It will be remembered that in Prof. Blake's method the signals were to be produced by a gong or peculiarly constructed whistle attached to the vessel as far as possible below the surface of the water; Mr. Boyer employs either the same means, or, in the same conditions, explosions of small quantities of gun-cotton. He employs a system of telephones to receive the signals, whereas Prof. Blake's receiver was a microphone connected with a telephone on the "bridge." The results of Mr. Boyer's experiments have been eminently satisfactory. It was found that the gain in the rate of transmission of the sound was a very considerable advantage, and moreover that the transmission was not interfered with even when the waves were lashed to fury by a storm, because at the depth of some twenty feet the water is very little agitated even by the most violent wind.

2. We have indicated in previous numbers some of the recent inventions relating to submarine and torpedo warfare. This is a direction in which naval engineering is making rapid advances. The latest development is a boat constructed for the Danish Government. The boat was planned by Lieutenant Horgoard of the Royal Navy, and possesses many advantages over similar vessels hitherto designed. It can, of course, be propelled on the surface, as ordinary boats, but may be sunk at will to any desired depth and continue its course for a consider. able distance under water. It is so equipped as to render reappearance on the surface unnecessary for many hours. The motive power for propelling it on the surface is supplied by steam, but, when under water, electricity is used. The longitudinal section of the vessel is elliptical.

But it is not only in this direction that naval engineering is advancing. The following returns just issued by Mr. N. M. Bell, superintendent of foreign mail, will show that considerable progress has been made in securing greater speed and immunity from accidents in ocean steamers. The American mail is transported by the fastest steamers only, irrespective of their nationality or the company to which they belong. Hence close records of the speed of the different vessels are officially kept. The shortest time required for conveying the mail between London and New York was 187.5 hours or 7 days and 191⁄2 hours, the longest being 258 hours, while the average was about 255 hours.

Several new vessels now in construction promise to excel even these records. They will be, no doubt, splendid specimens of what engineering skill can do for the greater comfort and convenience of passengers.

3. Many experiments, mostly successful, have lately been made with a view to the substitution of steam-heating apparatus and electric lights instead of stoves and oil lamps in railroad cars. Such attempts are highly praiseworthy, as by these arrangements an element of dreadful danger in case of accident is eliminated. Doubtless the great accident near Haverhill, Mass., in the early part of this winter, would have been far more appalling in character and results had not steam been employed instead of stoves. The frequent and severe cold spells in the Northwestern States put the practicability of heating the cars by steam from the locomotive to a rigorous test. But even during blizzards and in snow-bound trains a satisfactory result was obtained.

4. The "Railway Age" remarks that the year 1887 surpassed any of its predecessors for the extent of railroad mileage built in the United States within the term. The returns show an increase of nearly 13,000 miles of new main tracks constructed. This number represents an increase of more than 1500 miles over the previous year's record, which also was in excess of any preceding one. The increase was almost entirely confined to a few Western States, Kansas taking the lead with an addition

of 2000 miles. New England and New York have only a comparatively small advance to show, and the other Eastern and the Southern States have also been satisfied with slight additions. In December, 1887, the extent of railroads in the United States reached a little more than 150,ooo miles.

5. Measures are being taken in regions enjoying an abundant supply of natural gas to employ this useful fuel for two additional purposes. One of these is the heating of fire-engines. In Pittsburg, where, perhaps, the scheme is already carried into execution, it has been proposed to take the gas from the city mains by means of a hose and bring it under the boiler of the fire-engine. Thus the engine would be lit up when in use, and besides, a powerful heat would be had without a moment's loss of time.

The other scheme is to use the gas as fuel for locomotive engines. It is suggested that, instead of coal, the tenders carry wrought-iron tanks similar to those used for the oxyhydrogen light. In these tanks a supply of the condensed gas might be carried sufficient to afford fuel for over 500 miles of a run.

Apart from other conveniences of such a scheme, the saving in the weight to be hauled ought to render it acceptable to railroad companies, while the absence of smoke would increase the comfort of passengers.

6. Now that the question of a Postal Telegraph for the United States has been proposed (and, perhaps, put off for an indefinite period), it may be of interest to recount briefly a few facts about the establishment of a similar system in the United Kingdom nearly twenty years ago. Up to 1870 the telegraph service was in the hands of private companies; the charges were high and varied with the distance. The proposal to take the service into Government hands met, of course, with strenuous opposition from the private companies. Their opposition, however, was removed on the Government agreeing to buy their lines at a price equal to twenty times the net profits for the current year. The Government by this contract paid $35,000,000 for property that had cost less than $12,000,000. In spite of this bad beginning the advantages of the new system soon made themselves manifest. The rates were reduced on an average more than one-half, and a uniform charge of one shilling for a message of twenty words to any part of the kingdom was established. The number of messages sent in the first year of the change was over 12,000,000, or double that of the preceding one, and thus the system became self-supporting. The charges were still further reduced and an increase in the number of messages kept on uninterruptedly until it reached, in the year just ended, a grand total of 40,000,000. Recently the charge has been fixed at twelve cents for a message of twenty words. This latest reduction has not had time to show much influence on the number of messages, but we can safely surmise that it will lead to an enormous increase without any extra burden for the country.

Book Notices.

ST. PETER BISHOP OF ROME: OR THE ROMAN EPISCOPATE OF THE PRINCE OF THE APOSTLES. Proved from the Fathers, History and Archæology, and illustrated by Documents from other sources. By the Rev. T. Livius, C., SS.R., M.A., Oriel College, Oxford. Dedicated to His Eminence Cardinal Newman. New York: The Catholic Publication Society Co.; London: Burns & Oates. 1888.

The Roman Episcopate of St. Peter, which is the subject of this work, is of deep interest for its own sake to students of history and especially to Catholics apart from its theological bearings. For, as held by Catholics, it is a great fact inseparably bound up with what is of revealed faith, viz., the Primacy of St. Peter and the succession of the Roman Pontiffs. It is the verification indeed, in all time, of the promise which our Divine Lord made to St. Peter: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." In its bearings upon religious controversy it is a point of vital importance to Protestants, and consequently one which, driven by the necessity of their position as opponents of the Catholic faith, they have incessantly assailed.

It is true that St. Peter's Roman Episcopate was not antecendently necessary for the succession of the Bishops of Rome to his Primacy. For it is quite conceivable that the Primacy might by some other mode of Divine appointment have passed from St. Peter to the Roman Pontiffs without his ever having been himself Bishop of the See of Rome. But though this was antecedently possible, there is no room for doubt that in the order of actual fact St. Peter's Roman Episcopate was the means chosen by Divine Providence for the transmission of the Primacy to the Roman Bishops and its permanence in the See of Rome. This is involved in all Catholic tradition and belief. Hence it is a subject of deep theological interest, and it is impossible to treat it adequately as simply a historical fact. It has this two-fold bearing also for Protestants. For the concession by them of St. Peter's Primacy and the transmission of his Primacy to his successors in the See of Rome taken in its theological significance cuts the ground from under their feet and at once condemns them as schismatics.

Impressed by these considerations, the author of the work before us treats his subject as a complex living moral fact which has its original source in Divine revelation, and is the result and realization of the express promise of Christ to Peter and through Peter to his Church; or, rather, is the Divinely appointed mode by which that promise, which vitally concerns the essential constitution of the Church, is carried into actual effect. It is ever fraught with momentous consequences to the belief, doctrine and discipline of the Church and to the political principles and action of all Christian society. During successive ages it has held its place, and now holds it, in the hearts and minds of all Catholics, not as an isolated event of past history, but, while an actual historical event, yet also an ever-present living principle mightily influencing religious belief and practice.

For these reasons the author has treated his subject in its theological and controversial as well as its historical bearings. At the same time