wide. The clock tower, which separates the two arches in the street front, is 120 feet high. In connection with the station is a large and well managed hotel.

clust

LONDON BRIDGE.

On the south side of London Bridge is a

2

completed by the time specified. From the Surrey side to the second tower the longitudinal girders are all fixed, and for a great part of the distance the transverse girders for the permanent way are also in position. After passing the tower on the Middlesex side, the bridge spreads out in a fan shape, widening, till at the abutments the bridge is 170 feet wide, or the same width as the station in Hungerford Market. The structure of the Hungerford Bridge was purchased by the Charing Cross Railway for £40,000, and a further sum of £120,000 was paid for the tolls from passengers and the dues from the steam-boat piers. Both these sources of revenue, however, will still be continued, as there will be a footpath for pas sengers on the railway bridge, and as greatly improved accommodation will be given at a steam-boat pier; and as Charing Cross will, on the completion of the railway, become a still greater centre of traffic than at the present time, the company will fully recoup themselves for the purchase of the tolls and dues. The chains of the old bridge have been sold for £5000 to the Clifton Bridge Company, so that the purchase of the old bridge has not involved an outlay of more than £35,000. The cost of the bridge over the Thames will be about £180,000.

THE STATION

Covers three acres of land, taking in rather more than the whole of the area of the late Hungerford Market. From the termination of the bridge to the frontage of the station is about 450 feet

enaea that this line shall cross the river at

ion at Farringdon Street. A temporary t on the south side of the river.

NDERGROUND RAILWAY, for relieving the part of their traffic, commences by a junction tern Railway at Paddington, and passes under

Praed Street and the New Road to King's Cross, in an archway 28 feet wide, and from 16 to 18 feet high. The minimum thickness of the brickwork in the side walls and arches is 2 feet 5 inches. At King's Cross a junction is effected with the Great Northern Railway, and the Metropolitan Railway then proceeds in open cutting to Victoria Street, Holborn Bridge, and thence to Smithfield Market, the entire basement of which will be filled up as a railway depot. There are five intermediate stations in addition to those at the termini. By means of an extension half a mile in length, it is purposed to continue the line from Smithfield to Finsbury Pavement, within 400 yards of the Bank. The principal stations are covered with roofs of glass, extending across the line and platforms, and all the stations are well lighted. The line was opened for public traffic on 10th January 1863, and the number of passengers has varied from 21,000 to 38,000 daily. The Company are now proceeding with the extension to Smithfield Market.

THE NORTH LONDON RAILWAY is a line which connects the Blackwall Railway with the London and North-Western Railway, passing through the northern suburbs of the metropolis, and having stations at Stepney (at its east end), Bow, Victoria Park, Hackney, Kingsland, Newington Road, Islington, Caledonian Road, and Camden Town. Here the Hampstead and City Junction Railway commences, by means of which, and the North and SouthWestern Junction Railway, which passes near Acton, the loop line of the Richmond Railway may be reached at Kew.

VICTORIA STATION, PIMLICO.-At the end of Victoria Street, Pimlico, a quarter of a mile from Buckingham Palace, a large station has been erected on what was formerly the basin of the Grosvenor Canal, for the use of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company, the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, the West End and Crystal Palace Railway Company, and the Great Western Railway Company. Ten acres and a quarter of ground have been covered by the station. The line on the north of the river follows the course of the old Grosvenor Canal, and is enclosed by high walls, supporting a roof of iron and glass half a mile long. It is then carried across the Thames by an iron bridge, which is in close proximity to the new Battersea Park Bridge. South of the river the line joins the West End and Crystal Palace Railway on the one hand, and the West London Extension Railway on the other. The iron bridge is 920

feet long, 32 feet broad, and it is supported by two stone abutments at each end, and by three piers in the river, carrying four arched spans of 175 feet each.

A large and very handsomely-built hotel, called the Grosvenor Hotel, is erected contiguous to the station, with which it is connected. It has a frontage of 300 feet, and a depth of 80 feet. It will be nine storeys in height, including the basement, and contain upwards of 500 rooms.

WATERLOO STATION, Waterloo Bridge Road.-Here is the terminus of the South-Western (Southampton) Railway, and the Richmond, Windsor, and Reading Railway, the latter having a loop line through Kew and Hounslow. The station is spacious, but makes no pretence to architectural effect. The extension of the line from Nine Elms, Vauxhall, to this station, only two miles and fifty yards, cost £800,000.

ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH COMPANIES.

The LONDON DISTRICT TELEGRAPH COMPANY have offices in all parts of London, from which messages can be sent to any other part of London, at the rate of sixpence for fifteen words, and ninepence for twenty words, with free porterage within certain limits; and to all parts of the United Kingdom and the Continent, by arrangement with other offices. The chief office is at 90 Cannon Street, City, E. C.

The ELECTRIC AND INTERNATIONAL TELEGRAPH COMPANY. Chief office, Lothbury, near the Bank of England. Branch offices at Charing Cross, Regent's Circus, and other parts of London. Messages at a settled rate of charge according to length, can be sent to any part of the British Islands, or to the Continent.

BRITISH AND IRISH MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH COMPANY have their chief office in a new and handsome building in Threadneedle Street, near the Bank of England, erected on the site of the Baltic Coffee-house. The wires of this Company extend throughout the United Kingdom. Messages are received for transmission in a lofty hall forty feet square.

The SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH COMPANY have also offices here. The cables of this Company bring London into direct communication with all parts of Europe. The clock in the turret indicates true Greenwich time.

MESSENGERS.—A charitable society, in order to give employ

ment to soldiers who have been disabled by losing a limb in the service of the country, has undertaken to form a corps of trust-worthy messengers (sometimes styled commissionaires). They are dressed in, a dark green uniform, and wear badges; and are stationed about the principal streets of the east and west ends of the town. The authorized tariff of charges is-by distance, two-pence for half a mile or under; three-pence for a distance from half a mile to a mile. By time, sixpence an hour, or twopence a quarter of an hour, walking at the rate of 23 miles an hour; half a crown for a day of eight hours. For calling a carriage, a penny.

CONVEYANCE OF PARCELS.-A Company called the London Parcels Delivery Company, with their chief station in Roll's Buildings, Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, undertakes to deliver parcels in all parts of London at a settled rate of charge, according to weight and distance. There are numerous receiving offices in every part of the town, and at all the railway stations.

PATENTS.*

The subject of patents is of more than usual importance, at this period when foreign nations are pouring in upon us the results of their invention to compete with the performances of our own inventors. A few words upon this topic may therefore be acceptable. Any person, whether a British subject or a foreigner, may obtain a patent protecting for fourteen years, such inventions as he himself has made, or has derived from foreigners not domiciled in the United Kingdom. If more persons than one have been concerned in an invention, the patent ought to be taken out in their joint names. The inventions for which patents have been granted, may generally be classed under some one of the following heads. 1. Vendible articles, the results of chemical or mechanical processes, such as dyes, vulcanized india-rubber, water-proof cloth, and useful alloys. 2. Machines or improvements in machinery. 3. Processes whether requiring or not special machinery to carry them into effect. A patented process is sometimes entirely new, but much more commonly a part only is new. The simple combination of two known things is patentable, when the result is advantageous; and, indeed, a process

* Communicated by Messrs. J. Henry Johnson, and Co., Patent Agents, 47 Lincoln's Inn Fields.