J. C. Horsley, R.A.] [National
Portrait Gallery.
ISAMBARD K. BRUNEL,
1806–1859.
Son of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, engineer of the Thames Tunnel. Designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the Great Western (the first great ocean steamer) and the Great Eastern (see [page 38]), and was engineer of the Great Western Railway.
|The Telephone.| The revolution in intercourse between distant places effected by the electric telegraph has been noticed already, but even that has been outdone in rapidity by later applications of the electric current; for, just as spoken language is swifter than written words, so the telephone has overcome the limits hitherto imposed by space on conversation. It was a great marvel when, in 1852, the completion of a cable under the Channel rendered communication possible between London and Paris by means of a code of signals; but now statesmen and commercial men may discuss affairs confidentially by telephone; nay, a lover in Paris may listen with rapture to the very accents of his beloved lingering in London.
|The Phonograph.| One of the most remarkable modifications of the telephone is Edison’s phonograph, whereby the human voice and other sounds are recorded on a delicate membrane, which afterwards, for an indefinite period, is capable of being made to repeat or transmit these sounds. Future generations will be able thereby to listen to the actual voice and accents of the departed.
DRIVING THE TUNNEL FOR THE WATERLOO AND CITY RAILWAY.
The illustration represents the shield which protects the excavators. This is from time to time driven forward, and another section of the iron lining of the tunnel is inserted piece by piece between it and the sections already completed. Compressed air is used in that portion of the tunnel which is beneath the river to prevent the water entering. The Blackwall Tunnel, opened by the Prince of Wales, May 22, 1897, was constructed similarly.
Not the least important of the recent modes of employing electricity is its use as an illuminant. |Electricity as an Illuminant.| At the beginning of the reign the streets of London and other towns, as well as many of the houses, were lit by gas; though as late as fifteen years ago it was still the custom in some old-fashioned hotels to charge half-a-guinea for the use of a pair of wax candles. But the invention of an illuminant which neither exhausts nor pollutes the air breathed by human beings, nor involves risk of accidental conflagration, which is easily manageable and throws off no smoke and very little heat, has been one of the benefits conferred by science so characteristic of this age.