have dressed a beefsteak at the further extremity of the pipe of hot
water used for heating the steel plates; and Mr. Perkins is constructing
for himself an oven for roasting by water. It is easy to see, that, in a
very short time, this will lead to extraordinary and most beneficial
changes in domestic arrangements; and that if we could get rid of our
prejudices in favour of open fires, the smoky atmospheres of our great
towns would be got rid of at the same time. Water at 500°, or, at least,
water at 300°, for the purposes of cookery, and for heating reserve
cisterns of cold water, or masses of metal or masonry, for various
domestic purposes, including warming rooms, heating baths, laundries,
&c. may, at no distant time, be circulated by companies, in the same
manner as gas; and, in London, instead of one fire for every room, as at
present, there may be only one in a parish, or in every square of an
acre in area."

_A Marine Railway_

for the purpose of conveying vessels overland, has been projected by Mr.
Henry Fairbairn, in the United Service Journal for May, 1832. The
vessels are to be raised from the sea by machinery, placed in slips and
dragged along the railway by locomotive steam-engines. The same author
proposes to connect Ireland with Scotland, by means of a bank between
Portpatrick and Donaghadee; and England with France, by means of a chain
bridge, causeway, or tunnel, from Dover to Calais. Over all the lines of
marine railways he proposes to form suspension railways, resting upon
arches, in the manner of Mr. Dick's, for the conveyance of passengers,
mails, and merchandise.

_Silk from Spiders._