The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-31 00:00:00

PNEUMATIC TELEGRAPHY.

Among the many improvements introduced into
the working of the Post Office must be reckoned an
extension of the system of conveying telegrams by
means of pneumatic tubes. Such tubes have
been in use for some tithe for the
conveyance of letters and telegrams, but a
new principle has now been introduced, invented
by Mr. Siemens, of Berlin. The old system works
on the vacuum only, while Mr. Siemens uses the
vacuum and pressure alike. The tube laid down in
the Telegraphic Department at the Post Office com-
municates with Telegraph-street and. Fleet-street,, and
there is at Telegraph-street an engine which pumps air
into a tube. with a force adequate to project what is
called "a carrier" to the end of the line. The carrier
is a cylinder of felt, which carries the written tele-
grams. When the carrier starts, the wires inform
the St. Martin's-le-Grand officials, and state whether
the carrier is for them or for Fleet-street. If for the
main office, the pneumatic line is blocked by
an ingenious mechanical contrivance, and the
carrier is taken out. If. it is destined for •Fleet-
street its progress is not interrupted. A great
amount of work and time is saved by this arrange-
ment, as was testified by a series of experiments per-
formed at St. Martin's-le-Grand., A carrier was
sent from Telegraph-street to St. Martin's-le-Grand
in one minute 40 seconds, a distance of 880 yards,
and to Fleet-street, a distance of '2,027
yards, in four minutes. This was under
the new system by pressure, for under
the old vaccum system the transit • would have
taken eight minutes and a half. The labour saved
was that of twelve clerks. It is propose to develope
the system as rapidly as possible throughout the
chief metropolitan thoroughfares, and to establish a
large central station at Charing-cross.
THE CUSTODY OF WILLS.

If the records of the Probate Court were carefully
studied, they would be found to contain ample mate-
rial
for a good many sensational novels. Lord Pen-
zance, however, wishes to introduce a little more
practical common sense into the department of will-
making, and should his suggestions be a,l opted there
will be less room for romance. A testator is at present
allowed to keep his will any where be pleases, and
the will is, consequently, at the mercy of any person
who has access to his papers atter his death, and
sometimes a person interested under an intestacy
may have such access. If the will has remained in the
testator's custody until his death, the law is bound to
presume he has destroyed it, though other persons
may have had the opportunity of doing so. Lord
Penzance complains that the liberty given to a testa-
tor to keep such an important document as a will
anywhere he pleases throws great uncertainty upon
his testamentary dispositions. No doubt his lordship
has often had to deal with cases in which the law
went one way and his own conviction of the justice
of the case went another.

PnoGRUSS.
Our doings as a reforming nation are certainly
worthy of self-congratulation. Soon after the great
snow-fall in London of January 1867, which all but
stopped the street traffic for nearly a fortnight, the City
Commissioners of Sewers advertised premiums for
the best suggestions or plans to effect the rapid
removal of snow from the thoroughfares. Four years
have passed away, and the two hundred projects
which were sent in have not been even considered.
if four years are not sufficient to discover a plan for
removing snow, it is no wonder that generations are
required to build law courts, improve systems of
government, and. to reorganise armies.
LONDON STREETS AND SQUARES.
• Who will believe that the Metropolitan function-
aries who, by the number of their managerial
offices and Boards of Inquiry appal the - corporations
of provincial cities, would so far be • blind to the
methods of securing ordinary convenience as to allow
no less than eighteen York streets to exist in Lon-
don ? There is of course a difficulty in procuring
names for streets, when the thoroughfares
are opened by hundreds yearly ; still, one would
imagine that by calling all new streets by the names
of the members of the Metropolitan and District
Boards, or by some other happy strategem of the
kind, the trouble might be at least lessened. It is hard
to have to say anything that might be thoughtharsh,
or unjust against the Metropolitan Boards of Works.
Just at this crisis, inasmuch as we are told that after
years of waiting and watching these potential bodies
have decided to purchase the desolate and odius in-
ternal area of Leicester-square for a sum of £50.000.
This is an act of charity to all sightseers who visit
London, which commands respect from us, and conse-
quently silence upon any other annoyances afflicting
the community, such as the repetition of names in
streets in every quarter of the metropolis.
EFFECTS OF COLD ON IRON AND STEEL.
Some interesting papers read before the Manches-
ter Literary and Philosophical Society prove that
intense cold has no appreciable effect on the strength
of iron. Experiments have been made which shew
that frozen bars of iron when tested are more crys-
talline, and show . no sign of fibre, while
frozen bars thawed show a good amount of fibre,
and are slightly crystalline in the fibre. This is
very remarkable, as the thawing would seem to
restore the fibre. The question is one of great im-
portance, especially as it relates to railway acci-
dents. Sir William Fairbairn contributed a paper,
in which he states that . the danger from
broken tyres does not in his opinion arise so much
from changes of temperature as from the practice of
heating the tyres to a dull red heat, and shrinking
them on the rim of the wheels. Dr. Joule has made
a series of experiments upon the subject, which result
in the conclusion that frost does not make either
iron or steel brittle, whether the iron be cast or
wrought, while other experiments made by Mr. P.
Spence indicate that reduction of temperature, other
things being equal, increases rather than diminishes
the strength of cast-iron.