[Illustration: 11.56. Five miles from everywhere.] A patent for pneumatic tyres had been taken out in the 'forties; bicycles and tricycles came in at the end of the 'sixties; but twenty years were to elapse before the boneshaker and the "ordinary"--that wonderful and perilous machine--gave place to the "safety." In 1868 and 1869 references abound to velocipedes--the word "bicycle" had not yet established itself--and in the Almanack for 1869 there is a picture of a strange mechanism called the "Rantoone," a tricycle with two large wheels behind and a small guiding wheel in front. It is also mentioned in Henry Kingsley's _Boy in Grey_, and Crawley's _Manly Games for Boys_. But the bicycle, as we know it, the most momentous addition to the resources of locomotion between the coming of the steam engine and the advent of the petrol-driven motor, was only looming in the future; it was little more than a plaything in the period under review. Telegraph wires first began to spread their overhead network in London in 1859; the District Telegraph Company was started in 1860. Ten years later _Punch_ celebrates the reduction of the fee for a twenty-word telegram to one shilling. Of the use of telegraphy in war he expressed considerable scepticism, on the ground that it would lead to endless contradictory rumours. [Illustration: AWFUL SUMMUT That Tummas met as he was a-comin' whoam--"Ta looked like a man a ridin' 'pon nawthin'!"] [Sidenote: _The Atlantic Cable_] The most notable advance in telegraphy, however, was that of the long-distance cables. The year 1858 abounds in references to the second and third attempts to span the Atlantic. Frequent failures delayed the achievement of the enterprise for several years. In 1865 _Punch_ published a series of reports purporting to come from the _Great Eastern_, then engaged in laying the cable, but it was not until the summer of 1866 that he was able to record the completion of the task:-- A Parliamentary week never ended with a more gratifying incident. A Minister, Mr. Hunt, stated that the Atlantic Telegraph had been laid to America, an ex-Minister, Mr. Childers, confirmed the fact, and an Honourable Member held in his hand a signal that had just arrived. _Mr. Punch_ instantly sent Mr. Johnson a peremptory signal to liquor severely.