ll it has
stretched out its fingers tipped with fire into all the waters of the
globe. "Its lines have gone into all the earth, and its words to the
ends of the world." To-day there are over 70,000 miles of cable,
crossing the seas and the oceans. And, as if it were not enough to
have messages sent with the speed of lightning, they must be sent in
opposite directions at the same moment. I have just received a
telegram from Valentia, Ireland, which reads, "This anniversary
witnesses duplex working across the Atlantic as an accomplished
fact"--by which the capacity of all our ocean cables is doubled.

Who can measure the effect of this swift intelligence passing to and
fro? Already it regulates the markets of the world. But better still
is the new relation into which it brings the different kindreds of
mankind. Nations are made enemies by their ignorance of each other. A
better acquaintance leads to a better understanding; the sense of
nearness, the relation of neighborhood, awakens the feeling of
brotherhood. Is it not a sign that a better age is coming, when along
the ocean beds strewn with the wrecks of war, now glide the messages
of peace?

One thing only remains which I still hope to be spared to see, and in
which to take a part, the laying of a cable from San Francisco to the
Sandwich Islands--for which I have received this very day a concession
from King Kalakaua, by his Minister, who is here to night--and from
thence to Japan, by which the island groups of the Pacific may be
brought into communication with the continents on either side--Asia
and America--thus completing the circuit of the globe.

But life is passing, and perhaps that is to be left to other hands.
Many of our old companions have fallen, and we must soon give place to
our successors. But though we shall pass away, it is a satisfaction to
have been able to do something that shall remain when we are gone. If
in what I have done to advance this enterprise, I have done something
for the honor of my country and the good of the world, I am devoutly
grateful to my Creator. This has been the great ambition of my life,
and is the chief inheritance which I leave to my children.

* * * * *

CORRESPONDENCE.

* * * * *

THE GARY MOTOR.

_To the Editor of the Scientific American:_

In your article on the "Gary Motor," issue of March 8, page 144, you
say: "There is no neutral line