In conclusion, I wish to draw attention to an important discovery I have made in reference to blackened ceilings, for which, up to the present time, gas has been chiefly blamed. I have long entertained the belief that with a proper burner it is possible to obtain perfect combustion, without any smoke; and a series of experiments with white porcelain plates hung over some burners used in my own house proved conclusively that the discoloration which spread itself all over my whitewashed ceilings arose from the state of the atmosphere, which in all large towns is largely mixed with heavy smoky particles, and from the dust or dirt created in rooms by the use of coal fires as well as from the smoke which, more frequently than one is at first supposed to imagine, escapes from the fire-place into the room. I therefore, in two of my best rooms, which required to have the ceilings whitened every year, substituted varnished paper ceilings (light oak paper, simply put on in the usual way, and varnished) instead of whitewash. I also changed the coal fires for gas fires. These alterations have gone through the test of two winters, and the ceilings are now as clean as when they were first done. The burners have been used every night, and the gas fires every day, during the two winters. No alteration has been made in the burners employed, and no "consumers" have been used over them. If the varnished paper ceilings are tried, I am sure that every one will like them better than the time honored dirty whitewash, which is simply a fine sieve. This fact is clearly shown by the appearance of the rafters, which, after a short time, invariably show themselves whiter than the spaces between. * * * * * ANDERS' TELEPHONE. Mr. G.L. Anders' telephone, shown in the accompanying cut, combines in a single apparatus a transmitter, A, a receiver, B, and a pile, C. The transmitter consists of a felt disk, a, containing several large apertures, and fixed by an insulating ring, c, to a metallic disk, d, situated within the box, D. The apertures, b, are filled with powdered carbon, e, and are covered by a thin metal plate, f, which is fixed to the insulating ring, c, by means of a metallic washer, g. Back of the transmitter is arranged the receiver, B, which consists of an ordinary electro-magnet with a disk in front of its poles. The pile, C, placed behind the receiver, consists of a piece of carbon, h, held by a partition, i, and covered with a salt of mercury, and of a plate of zinc, l, which is held at a distance from the mercurial salt by a spring, m, fixed to the insulating piece, n. [Illustration: ANDERS TELEPHONE]