AN ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE

out, without a conscious analysis of individual letters. Messages can be flashed from the rigging of ships with almost the rapidity of telegraph messages over ordinary wires. Take, for example, the message " The uniform of the day will be clean blue." This sentence of only nine words, if, sent at the rate of nine words per minute according to the regular navy code, could be read by about one officer out of ten. Few officers can read that fast. The average speed of signalling, then, by the "wigwag" system is probably less than nine words per minute. It ought to be more. Mr. Edison has suggested an adaptation of his train telegraph system to the use of ships at sea. If a sufficient area of insulated metallic surface could be exposed somewhere, either on deck or aloft, it might be possible to telegraph from ship to ship by electrical induction without the use of connecting wires, just as Edison in a moving train takes messages from the wires along the track. We know of no.experiments in this direction as yet, but the field is certainly an interesting and promising one.