The return of a small group of Sisters of Charity to Parramatta in 1886 was a pin-point of an event when set againt the more or less contemporary achievements that produced, for example, a practical lamp that gave out electric light, an apparatus that sent and received voices along wire, an automobile that really covered the distance. Electric lighting, telephones and cars were, in 1886, rareties that might come one's way tomorrow, but the men who made them possible found a sure place in the history books.