tion of Navigation was established on June 28, 1854, to form a technical division of the naval office at Danzig. On account of insufficient force the institute had to limit its operations to the needs of the war navy. The Direction of Navigation at Danzig was dissolved on September 25, 1861, and in its place a "Hydrographic Bureau" was established to form a section of Division X of the Ministry of Navy. Its functions remained unchanged, and in addition it was commissioned with the current work of sea charts and with the collecting and tabulating of nautical informations, which, between the years 1863 and 1868, were furnished to the vessels of the war navy. In order to extend its usefulness to the mercautile marine these informations were published, since 1869, under the title of "Nachrichten für Seefahrer," at first as additions to the "Preussisches Handelsblatt" and since 1870 as additions to the " Marine Verordnungs-Blatt."

The demands on the Hydrographic Office increased with the rapid increase of the war navy, until it became unable to do all the work expected of it. In January, 1874, therefore, it was enlarged and appointed a separate division of the Admiralty, with the following personnel :

One full captain (or admiral), in charge; two chiefs of division, five section chiefs (including the chief of the Wilhelmshaven Observatory), five assistants, one librarian, and a number of draughtsmen, engravers, and mechanics.

For the business administration the following clerical force was appointed: Two chiefs of bureaus, two registrars, two secretaries of chancelry, and the required subordinates.

The Hydrographic Office in first line serves the interests of the im perial navy, but its advantages are extended to the mercantile navy as far as possible.

A survey of the entire territory of the North and Baltic Seas was begun in 1867 and completed in 1879; from 1880 to 1884 test measurements were made, scientific experiments instituted along the German coasts, and the knowledge of the physical conditions of the native seas improved.

The Central Telegraph Bureau and the Telephone Service.-With regard to its importance in the telegraphic intercourse the Bureau at Berlin occupies the first place among the telegraphic stations of the Empire. It is attached to the second division of the Imperial Post-office Depart ment and serves as center of the telegraphic and pneumatic intercourse for Berlin.

A few figures will exhibit the importance of the establishment and afford an illustration of its operations.

The service of the Central Bureau gives employment to four hundred and ninety-two officials and one hundred and twenty-eight subordinates. The telegraphing business requires the application of fifty-four type apparatus, Hughes's construction, one hundred and seventy-eight Morse

apparatus, and fifty-one apparatus of a peculiar construction. Two hundred and eighty-two wires center at Berlin; of these fifty-six are underground and serve the larger circuit, thirty-seven, seventy, and twenty-eight overhead wires are used for foreign, the larger and smaller domestic circuits, respectively, while fifty-six underground wires accommodate the city trade. Within the city limits all wires, with the exception of those used in telephoning, are placed underground.

One hundred and twenty-four batteries, representing 7,350 elements, together with eight batteries for special purposes representing 290 elements, are employed in the central office.

The Berlin service comprises 351.8 kilometers (218.6 miles) of lines, with 2,428.5 kilometers (1,509 miles) of wire; the pneumatic service comprises 40.5 kilometers 25 miles of lines. with 46.3 kilometers (29 miles) of tubes.

The pneumatic line commences at the Central Telegrapa Bureau, radiates in six principal directions, and together with the branch lines forms connection with thirty-three pneumatic offices. Each line runs one train every fifteen minutes in either direction, with a velocity of 1,000 meters (3281 feet) per minute. The pressure and vacuum are produced at eight stations, each of which is provided with a double set of engines of a total force of 133 horse-power. Forty-four compartments of a total capacity of 772 cubic meters serve to hold the compressed air and the air ejected by the tubes. Each line controls a special series of sig nals.

The telephone service was established in 1881. At the beginning two central offices were established. Each of these received two switchboards for fifty plugs each. The great advantages of immediate personal communication and the extraordinary simplicity of the arrangement became so apparent that this mode of communication soon came into general use. The increase is best illustrated by stating that from the end of November, 1881, to June, 1886, the number of participants had increased from 442 to 5,194, while the line had increased from 1,319 to 10,477 kilometers (819 to 6,510 miles.)

In order to enable the subscribers to communicate with their own homes or places of business from more distant parts and also to throw the service open to general utility, public stations were established which could be used by any one so desirous upon the payment of a small fee. At present there are twelve such stations.

The constant increase in the number of telephones rendered it desirable to extend the telephonic service beyond the city limits. The progress made in this field of technic, especially in the construction of longdistance microphones, rendered it practicable to establish, in November, 1882, connection between Berlin and Charlottenburg; in May, 1883, it was extended to Berlin and Potsdam; in December 1883 connection was made between the exchanges of Berlin and Magdeburg; in the years 1884 and 1885 with the surburban places: Westend, Köpenick, Steg

litz, Rixdorf, Gross Lichterfelde, Weissensee, Pankow, Rummelsburg, Friedenau, and Grünau.

The greatest distance of 347 kilometers (215 miles) was accomplished between Berlin and Hanover, and a large number is projected between Berlin and Halle, Breslau, Leipzig, Hamburg, etc.

The total cost of construction of the telephone service in Berlin to and including the year 1884-'85 has been about 2,000,000 mark ($500,000). Large amounts are required for the support and changes of lines and for their maintenance and operation.

Until the beginning of the year 1886 the conduct and supervision of the telephone service was inthe hands of the Central Telegraph Bureau; the extent and growing demand however made it desirable to establish the service on an independent basis with a rank of an office of the first class. The service, at present employs two hundred and seventy-five regular officials with a corresponding number of subordinates.

The principal supervision of the erection of buildings for the telephonic service and of its administration, belongs to the Imperial PostOffice Department at Berlin, which has established a special division for the purpose. This is in charge of a councilor of post assisted by a telegraph inspector and ten officials for the business affairs of the bureau. To these, ten officials have been added who are employed in technical affairs, that is, in the preparation of plans and execution of the necessary building and changes in the lines and who have charge of a large number of laborers. And all decisions in telephonic affairs are rendered by this second division of the imperial post-office department.

The Telegraph Workshop, etc.—The duties of the telegraph apparatus workshop comprise: (1) The manufacture of apparatus and parts of such, as well as of the materials and tools required; (2) the changes and repairs to existing apparatus; (3) the making of contracts for the manufacture of apparatus and their parts, tools, materials, etc.; (4) the testing of apparatus, tools, materials, or changes or repairs made at private shops; (5) the examination of the bills; (6) the care and stor age of apparatus and their parts; (7) the transmission of apparatus and their parts; (8) the sale of condemned material; (9) the keeping of accounts with regard to tools, apparatus, and their parts, materials and equipment; (10) the keeping of a list of applicants for mechanical positions; (11) the employment of assistant mechanics appointed by the post-office department.

The telegraph workshop is therefore divided into three branches, viz: (a) the bureau, (b) the mechanical work shop, (c) the carpenter shop and shipping office.

The bureau gives employment to one official of the first class, and three of the second, while the mechanical workshop employs one official of the first class who supervises the force, consisting of twenty mechanics.

Each mechanic has a separate and completely equipped place assigned within the shop.

The cable examination-room serves in the first line for continued measurements of the underground lines of Berlin, which are made once a week; it is furthermore used for the accurate measurements and experiments with new batteries, apparatus, and switches, etc. The currents of the two underground cables, Berlin and Thorn and Berlin and Dresden, are measured by the aid of two self-registering apparatus located in the testing-room.

The use of underground cables made it desirable to test their electrical properties at regular, short intervals by measuring the resistance of the copper wire, the isolating resistance, etc., of the insulating material, etc. This had the effect of giving full information of the state of the cable at all times; any mechanical injury was at once indicated, and could be repaired without delay. These regular measurements offered an opportunity for the instruction to a large number of officials located throughout the Empire, thus enabling them to be of service in case of emergency.

The Postal Museum.-The collections of the postal museum are located on the ground floor of the monumental building of the central PostOffice Department of the German Empire.

The l'ostmaster General, soon after entering upon his duties, endeavored to interest the official bureaus, private individuals, artists, scientists, etc., in his ideas, and succeeded therein in such a measure that at the beginning of the present decade already a pretty complete representation from the beginning of communication to the present days, was presented in the collections of the postal museum.

In the mean time, by the incorporation, in 1876, of the telegraphy with the post, all the apparatus, models, materials, etc., collected by the former general director of telegraphy were transferred to the older sister establishment, and this collection being very rich and complete, the telegraph division of the postal bureau offers to the technician and to the physical science a rich source for earnest study, and especially a true historical picture of the development of the telegraph.

The postal division, of course, is still more extended, for the history of communication is as old as man himself. In the museums are represented the Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Hebrews, and other people of antiquity; Egyptian hieroglyphs, papyrus with hieratic writing, and Niniveh writing upon terra-cotta plates are the proofs which those people offer. The little plates of the Greeks and Romans which were laid before the oracle of Dodons, the skytale written upon parchment, the well executed imitations of the rare "tabella duplices et triplices" and the "Diptyches," distributed by the Roman consuls upon the commencement of their terms of office, conclude the antiquity. The gradual development of more regulated forms of later periods, includ ing the Middle Ages, are illustrated by precious samples of writings emanating from the contemplative quiet of the monasteries, representations of boats, wagons and teams, streets, ships, etc., etc., while the

modern cosmopolitan character of the "post" is represented by natural models of all peoples and countries. Everything is represented, from the most primitive row-boat to the highly elegant steamer, from the "dog post" to the six-horse postal carriage, railway post, pigeon post, field post, etc. Numerous illustrations of the homes of the post in all zones, and models of the stately buildings of modern times, complete the panorama.

IX. THE ROYAL LIBRARY.

The establishment of a public library dates back to the year 1661, and is owing to the Grand Elector who ordered the collection of the fragments of the monasterial libraries and had them combined with the library of the castle, forming a collection comprising 1,618 European and Oriental manuscripts and 20,600 printed works, representing about 90,000 volumes. Frederick I added to it the purchased Spanheim collection of books, and Frederick II the library and collection of charts of Colonel Quintus Icilius and other valuable purchases. The present building was erected in the years 1774-1780 by order of Frederick the Great; the books were transferred to it in 1782, and the reading-room was opened in 1784.

According to the report of the director, in 1836, the library contained about 200,000 printed volumes, and 4,611 manuscripts. The growth of the library was such, that toward the end of the reign of Frederick William III, the lower floor of the building-used for the storage of books, had to be applied to the use of exposition. It was re-modelled during the years 1840 to 1842, and divided into two stories. The burning in 1843, of the Royal Opera House, immediately opposite the library, called attention to the importance of fire-proofing the building, the provision of iron stairways, doors, etc., and of suitable water reservoirs. The extraordinary increase of the collections-amounting at present (1886) to 800,000 volumes, and 20,000 manuscripts, rendered it necessary to divide the elevation of the stories by means of iron ceilings, and to use a portion of the attic for the storage of books.

The budget for 1886-'87 allowed 96,000 mark ($24,000) for the purchase of books, manuscripts, journals, music, charts, and illustrations, and for the necessary expense for the binding of books.

X. THE ROYAL BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.

In 1850, when the Finance Department had under advisement the best. method for preventing the manufacture of counterfeit money, a proposition was made to have all paper money and securities made at some central establishment. On April 30, 1851, a royal decree authorized the establishment of a bureau for the manufacture of paper money, bonds, and other securities, and a building was purchased for the purpose at a cost of 5,380 thaler ($4,135).