=Source.=--_The Times._
_January 5._--The last American mail has brought us interesting
details relating to the progress made in manipulating the electric
light. Pending the researches in which Professor Edison has for a
long time been engaged, it appears that his laboratory at Menlo
Park was practically closed to all strangers, until the young
scientist should have arrived at a point to enable him to declare
that complete success had attended his final efforts. That point
has apparently been reached.... The steadiness, reliability, and
non-fusibility of the carbon filament, Mr. Edison tells us, are not
the only elements incident to the new discovery. There is likewise
obtained an element of proper and uniform resistance to the passage
of the electric current.
_April 10._--Several chambers in the Temple will shortly possess
the advantage of having communication by telephone with the Law
Courts at Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. The telephonic
apparatus is at present being laid down between the Temple
Gardens and Westminster Hall, the Metropolitan District Railway
being utilized for the purpose. The apparatus, after having been
connected with several of the chambers and offices in the Temple,
enters the underground railway line, which it is carried along,
immediately under the crown of the railway arch.
_May 31._--That the Lord Mayor should in his official capacity
have lent his presence to the opening of the Grand Hotel at
Charing Cross, as he did on Saturday evening, implies that the new
undertaking possesses a more than private character. So, in fact,
it does. If it cannot be said altogether to open a new era in the
history of hotels in this country, it makes at least a distinct
advance in the character of English hotel accommodation.... The
distinctively English hotel is a dismal and cheerless place,
where one feels cut off from all human sympathy. Of late years
there has been a tendency in London to adopt Continental ways,
but the improvement has seldom been carried much further than the
establishment of a _table d'hôte_. The Grand Hotel is an ambitious
attempt to rival the best European and American models.