I feel that one of the most important go-withs for the collector is books, because books contain knowledge. Many times a question that has haunted me for years has been answered easily and quickly just by laying hands on the right book. Instantly, theories are proven or disproven, strange items identified and knowledge in your given field of interest increased.

The book we are looking at today is "Sixty Years a Queen" as told by Sir Herbert Maxwell. This book details the achievements and progress of the British Empire during the long reign of Queen Victoria. Although this is not a book about the telegraph or telephone, it was found to contain some delicious little tidbits of telegraph history.

Telegraph Cable Ship "Monarch" This ship was built and is maintained by the Post Office specially for the laying and repairing of submarine telegraph cables. She is fitted with sheaves in the bows, over which the cables are led. The "Alert" is another ship employed for the same purpose.

Section of the "Great Eastern," The Largest Ship Ever Built The "Great Eastern" was designed by Mr. Isambard K. Brussel and built by Mr. Scott Russel of Millwall, at a cost of £732,000. Her keel was laid in May 1854 and she was launched on January 31, 1858. Her length was 692 feet; width between bulwarks, 83 feet; height 60 feet; tonnage, 23,500; displacement when loaded, 27,384 tons; horsepower, 33,000. 30,000 wrought-iron plates were used in her hulk. She was built on the "cellular" principle, with two skins 2 feet apart, and driven by both paddle wheels and screw. As a passenger steamer she did not succeed; but she laid the first successful Atlantic cable (1866) and picked up and repaired the earlier one which had parted in mid-ocean. She was afterwards purchased for public exhibition and finally broken up in 1891.

| On January 1, 1844 the following message was received from Slough by this instrument: -- "A murder has just been committed at Salt Hill, and the suspected murderer was seen to take first-class ticket for London by the train which left Slough at 7.42 p.m. He is in the garb of a Quaker, with a b brown great coat on, which reaches nearly down to his feet. He is in the last compartment of the second first-class carriage." The murderer, Tawell, was identified, apprehended,  and  convicted.  This was the first occasion on which a telegraphic message overtaking a criminal led to his arrest.

A Portion Of A Telegraphic Operating Room At The General Post Office, London The number of telegraphic messages transmitted from the various London offices in the year 1895-6 was 27,025,193, and the total for the United Kingdom, 78,839,610. As many as six messages -- three in each direction -- are now transmitted along a single wire at the same time.

Central Postal Telegraph Office. This large building, officially known as the "G.P.O. West," occupies the corner of Newgate Street opposite to the General Post Office at St. Martin's-le-Grand. It was erected in 1870-74, and is entirely devoted to telegraphic business. The uppermost three floors are operating rooms, of the interior of one of which we give a view on page 31.