Messrs. Cook and Wheatstone made their first practical experiment on the London and Birmingham Railway and demonstrated beyond all doubt that as beacon fires and torches had been superseded in 1792 by the aerial or semaphore telegraph, so now the latter would have to succumb to a far more important rival, Thus on the 3th September, 1851 (or within a few days of thirty years ago), was telegraphic communication established between England and France, In the following June, the cable having been recoiled, half on board the Niagara and half on board the Agamemnon, various experiments were made in the Bay of Biscay, the results of which were considered satisfactory to the proposal of splicing the cable in midocean and both ships paying out cable at the same time, one towards Ireland and the other towards Newfoundland.