obliquity of these kites; that the variation
of obliquity can be accommodated to the
direction and force of the wind; that two
large kites will suffice to drive the phaeton
along a common road by the power of the
wind—all is duly set forth. And it has also
been announced as an indubitable fact that,
once upon a time, the Charvolant conveyed
several persons from London to Bristol at a
high speed. Then there is an Aerial Machine,
with sails projecting from either side of the
car, and from a jointed axle suspended over
the car; another Aerial Machine, with two
cylindrical balloons, two revolving wheels,
two propelling floats, and a rudder; a third
Aerial Machine, furnished with sails put in
motion by a clock-spring; also a Navigable
Balloon, with axles projecting laterally, to impart
rotary motion to sails shaped like screw-
propellers; also a Locomotive Balloon, with
a car shaped like a boat, a steering apparatus,
having the movements of a bird's tail, and a
buoyant apparatus, for converting it into a
life-boat in case it should fall into the sea;
also a Navigable Balloon, with a provision for
receiving into the car the gas not wanted in
the balloon, and two centrifugal bellows,
whereby this supplementary gas may blow
the whole affair along in any required
direction. There does, in fact, seem to have been
a determined opinion formed, among many
persons skilled in mechanical contrivances,
that there must, shall, and will be some
apparatus contrived for steering or governing
the movements of balloons and other aerial
machines. It is true that nothing has yet
been accomplished in this way, even by our most
skilful aeronauts; and the men of science,
as distinguished from the men of practice,
entertain very decided opinions concerning
the impracticability of all such plans. Yet
it would not do to accept this dictum too
explicitly; there may be something in reserve,
to astonish us by and by in this matter.

The death of the atmospheric railway has
not quite killed all the projects for new
systems of railway propulsion. Here is one
now before us, which the inventors, in the
happy spirit which distinguishes inventors
generally, insist will be an immense
improvement on our present plans. It is all
very easy and straightforward. Divide
your railway into portions of a hundred
yards or so; place across the line at each
division, a kind of trough or oblong box,
made of iron, and embedded beneath the
rails; let three vertical axles spring up from
the box, one in the middle, and one on each
side of the railway; let three horizontal
wheels surmount the three axles; place a pair
of air-engines at hand, in such position that
the pistons shall act on the outside wheels;
lay an iron pipe beneath the whole length of
railway, wkh branch-pipes to the air-engines;
place a steam-engine at intervals of ten miles,
to partially exhaust the air from this pipe;
then, by a hocus-pocus of steam-engines,
air-pumps, air-engines, main-pipes, branch-
pipes, vertical axles, horizontal wheels, traction-
rails, starting-valves, and reversing-
valves, manage railway transit much more
cheaply than by locomotives.

One of our neighbours across the English
Channel, bravely daring the dangers of the
sea, invites us to take a pleasure-trip per
railway beneath the salt water of the channel
itself; only asking us to wait, if convenient,
until he shall have made his railway. What
he proposes to do, or proposes for others to
do, in some undefined future, is nearly as
follows. Take some strong iron plates,
or plates of cast iron; make them into a tube
or tunnel twenty-one miles in length; rivet
them, and pitch them, and doctor them, until
they will effectually resist the entrance of
water; let your tube be large enough to
admit a double line of railway within; give
to the position of your tube such a slope
along the bottom of the sea, that the descent
of a railway train will afford impetus enough
to enable it to ascend in the second half of its
journey, so that you may work your railway
without any kind of locomotive; or, if the
train cannot quite complete its ascending
course, give it a lift by a stationary engine
and a rope on shore. As for the difficulties,
what are they? Difficulties are things made
to be conquered; and the worthy engineer
laughs them away. He only wants a round
number of millions sterling, to defray the
expense; and all the subsidiary arrangements
shall be made to your heart's content.
"These tunnels beneath the sea," he tells us,
"would not prevent navigation; two lighthouses
might be erected at the entrances of
the tubes; also several smaller ones between
the lighthouses of France and England.
These beacons, which may bear the names of
the different nations of the earth, should be
lighted up at night, and would indicate
outwardly the position of the submarine railway,
so that mariners should not cast anchor over
it, as the tube might be damaged. The day
and night lights of the lighthouses should be
transmitted through the tube (covered internally
with a coating of enamel or lead) by
means of reflecting metal plates. The upper
part of the tube should have some strong
glass windows placed at equal distances, and
gas, which would complete the lighting
between the beacons. The carriages might
also be open, or have glazed roofs, to enable
the passengers to profit by the various lights.
We greatly admire the use of the words
"would" and "should;" they are much safer
than "will" and "shall." When this Anglo-
French Submarine Railway shall have been
constructed, and shall occupy a page in
Bradshaw, we will make a point of
reporting further upon it; meanwhile, we
will observe that tunnels or iron tubes
immersed in the water have formed part
of many railway schemes; projectors think that
as we are wafted through a hollow beam