he
least contact with the cable is as destructive as lightning; but this
will no doubt soon be done.

With all these ingenuities, no one has yet contrived a really successful
flying-machine. Man seems designed by his Creator to remain always "a
little lower than the angels" in this prerogative.

It is a good thing to be able to be rid, as we now may be, of dirty
anthracite or other coal in our houses. The distribution of heat,--by
pipes conveying hydrogen gas for burning in gas-stoves, ranges, or
furnaces, by steam, or by hot water,--is provided for on the pipe
system, extending under and through houses from large street mains, in
most of our cities. I am much pleased also with the method of _floor_
and _wall_-warming now common; although, for the wealthy, an open wood
fire is still one of the greatest of all costly luxuries. The uses of
coal, moreover, are yet so numerous, that all coal-carrying railroads
are earning and paying large dividends.

For the summer time, the "can't get away" Philadelphians may be
congratulated on the delightful sea-water baths they can have on Broad
Street, in water brought by the great marine aqueduct from Atlantic
City. The water is raised from the sea by tidal power (a kind of motor
now having many applications) to a reservoir at a sufficient height to
give the requisite descent towards the city. Its rate of movement, also,
is such that, being under cover all the way, it retains much of the
coolness of the ocean-surf.

The blanching or bleaching of the London fogs, by the improved methods
of consuming smoke, must be a very fine thing for the dwellers in that
overgrown city. We hear, however, of one old lady, a duchess, who thinks
the fog now to be very vulgarly pale; and regrets the good old days of
what she thought a much more picturesque gloom.

_October 3d, 1931._

I have just walked up from the Public Buildings at Broad and Market
Streets, whither I went to read the "City Bulletin" of telegraphic
intelligence from all quarters of the world. This is displayed by means
of letters thrown by the electric light upon screens on the four sides
of the great square tower above the public buildings. On the North side,
you can see the latest items of news from Europe; on the East, from
Asia; on the South, from South America, Africa, and Australasia; on the
West, from all parts of the United States and Territories. The
illuminatio