through the length of the tube, and will be
distinctly heard by any one placing his ear to the mouth of the other.
It is not necessary that the tube should come to the lips of the bust.
If there be two tubes, one going to the ear, and the other to the
mouth of each head, two persons may converse together, by whispers,
without the knowledge of any person who may stand in the middle of the
room.

_The Inanimate Oracle._

Place a bust on a pedestal in the corner of a room, and let there be
two tubes, as in the preceding article, one to go from the mouth, and
the other from the ear, through the pedestal and the floor to an under
apartment; there may be also wires, that go from the under jaw and the
eyes of the bust, by which they may be easily moved.

A person being placed in the room underneath, and applying his ear to
one of the tubes at a signal given, will hear any question asked, and
can immediately reply, by applying his mouth to the tube which
communicates below, at the same time moving the eyes by the wire, to
accompany his speech.

_The Solar Concerto._

In a large case, similar to what is used for dials and spring clocks,
the front of which, or at least the lower part, must be of glass,
covered on the inside with gauze, place a barrel organ, which when
wound up is prevented from playing by a catch that takes a toothed
wheel at the end of the barrel. To one end of this catch join a wire,
at the end of which is a flat circle of cork, of the same dimensions
with the inside of a glass tube, in which it is to rise and fall. This
tube must communicate with a reservoir that goes across the front part
of the bottom of the case, which is to be filled with spirits, such as
is used in thermometers.

This case being placed in the sun, the spirits will be rarefied by the
heat, and, rising in the tube, will lift up the catch or trigger, and
set the organ in play; which will continue as long as it is kept in
the sun; for the spirits cannot run out of the tube, that part of the
catch to which the circle is fixed being prevented from rising beyond
a certain point, by a check placed over it. Care must be taken to
remove the machine out of the sun before the organ runs down, that its
stopping may be evidently affected by the cold.

In winter it will perform when placed before the fire.

CURIOUS EXPERIMENTS WITH THE MAGIC LANTERN.

The construction of this amusing optical machine is so well known,
that to desc