The Morning Post of last Saturday published some information which
we imagine was quite new to the public about the work of the Engineering Research Department of the Post Office. One of the inventions of the Department is an instrument which indicates the exact point at which any underground telegraph cable is in danger of breaking. By this means the collapse of any cable can be foreseen and prevented, and yet the instrument can perform its work of detection while the ordinary telegraph service is going on. Another example of the economy resulting from research work is that the original trunk lines between London and the North which weighed 600 lb. per mile have been replaced by wire weighing only 40 lb. per mile. Moreover, much better results are obtained by the lighter wire. The Morning Post says that the Post Office Research Depart- ment helped the Allies to an extraordinary extent in winning the War. The various devices produced by the Department were " all-British " and our enemies could not imitate them. " So there's something in the English after all." Research is one of the few things which truly prosper in a business Department of State. because men follow research like a mistress or an art.
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