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._ At the last Anniversary of the Society of Arts, the Silver Isis Medal was presented to Mr. D.B. Rolt for obtaining Silk from the Garden Spider. We find the details in the volume of the Society's _Transactions_ lately published. "The subject of Mr. Rolt's experiments has been the garden spider, Aranea diadema, the webs of which, in autumn, are so conspicuous on the surface of shrubs and in other similar situations. On allowing one of these animals to crawl over his hand, he found that it drew a thread with it wherever it went: he likewise, without any difficulty, wound some of this thread over his hand, finding that the spider continued spinning while the thread was winding up. "On this hint, he connected a small reel with the steam-engine of the factory in which he is occupied, and putting it in motion, at the rate of 150 feet per minute, found that the spider would thus continue to afford an unbroken thread during from three to five minutes. The specimen of this silk, which accompanies Mr. Rolt's communication, was wound off from twenty-four spiders in about two hours. Mr. R. estimates its length at 18,000 feet; its colour is white, and its lustre is brilliant, and completely metallic, owing, probably, to its great opacity. No attempt has been made by him to combine two or more filaments into one by winding, nor, of course, to form it into thread by throwing.