All About Inventions and Discoveries
The Romance of modern scientific and mechanical Achievements

______________ IV ___________________________________________________________________________________ ______ ________ Contents CHAPTER IV The Modern Submarine _________________________..... The Submarine Designed by Holland, a Discontented Irish- man, to Destroy the British Navy—How the first Ship was Built to Aid the Fenians—Abandonment of the Proposal— The Competition for Favour—Construction of Submarine for American Navy—A Failure—Succeeding Boat Proves More Successful—British Government Purchases the Idea— Development of the Submarine— The Disappointed Inventor. CHAPTER V The Dawn of the Electric Traction Era Superseding the Horse-drawn Tram by Power—Electricity as the Solution of the Problem—Early Tramway Successes and Failures—Application of Electric Propulsion to Trains —Monster Electric Locomotives—The Birth of Tube Rail- ways— The Electrically Driven Omnibus—The Electric Com- mercial Vehicle. CHAPTER VI The Westinghouse Brake and its Effect on Travel . . ____________________ When each Railway Carriage Carried its own Independent Hand-operated Brake—Fast Trains Dangerous—George Westinghouse turns his Attention and Energies toward the Perfection of a Continuous Brake operated from the Engine which will Act automatically—The Reliability of the Idea Leads to the Introduction of Express Trains—How the Brake Works—Slip Carriages. CHAPTER VII The Telephone ______________________________...... The Romantic Story of the Discovery of the Possibility of Sending Speech by Wire—A Remarkable Patent Situation —Development of the Idea—Edison’s Contribution—An Apparent Commercial Failure—How the Invention was Saved from Disaster—Introduction into England—The Coming of the Trunk Line—Extraordinary Progress in the United States — Underground Cables—Building the Longest Telephone Line in the World from New York to San Francisco, 3,390 miles —Wireless Telephony. PAGE 71 85 II5 I4I