ing-machine Company, New York, where the lace is made to order, there are always people ready to teach the making of it, and to provide customers with the materials. The threads are of different sizes and colors, and it is claimed that ladies can readily learn to make the knots (shown in No. 2). Afterward it will be easy to vary the pattern in accordance with the taste and ingenuity of the worker. We have had a few of the best patterns engraved. Nos. 3, 5, and 6 are from the manufacturers here. Nos. 1 and 4 are taken from an excellent manual, "The Queen Lace Book," published at the office of the "Queen" newspaper in London. We recommend this manual to those of our readers who would like to know something about the history of lace, but who have neither the time to read, nor the means to buy, such luxurious books as the late Mrs. Bury Palliser's complete and thorough work on the subject. The only drawback to one's pleasure in this and some other revivals is that their cheapness and the ease that attends their | production make them common; there is too little temperance in their use, and, as we see them everywhere, we come to weary of them. When they were originally made, there was little machinery in the world and little commerce. Almost everything was made by hand, either wholly or in part, and whatever mechanical appliances were employed were of the simplest. Manufactures sprang up in wide-apart places, and, for lack of easy means of communication, circulated but little, and that slowly, outside these bounds. The mode of production gave an individual character to the things that came out of these workshops, every maker following his own taste, and it was long before enough people saw them to create a demand for copies and imitations. Now, all this is changed, and the universal employment of machinery and the wide spread of commerce, which, to use Dryden's fine expression, "Has made one city of the universe," have rubbed a good deal of the bloom from the ancient manufactures, by crowding the market with cheap and clever imitations. Not to speak of other things,-pottery, for instance,-lace has suffered a good deal by this cheapening. Imitations-some very coarse, and others very fine-are made of the more expensive sorts, and when there comes along a manufacture that is too cheap and too easily made to be worth imitating, it runs about like wild-fire, and we beat our brains to devise new and unheard-of ways of displaying it. Chairs and tables, sofas and mantel-pieces, towels and table-cloths, curtains and piano-covers are fringed with it, and there is danger it may soon become as much of an eye-sore as the common run of Japanese goods. In the old time it would not have been easy to have found any market at all for such lace as this, nor was it, indeed, made to sell, but merely for home use,-a cheap substitute for better material, like the rag-carpets of our grandmothers. Of course, too, no house would have much of it, nor was it probable two pieces of it would be found with the same pattern. The linen thread was spun by the people who made the lace,-all linen being home-spun in those days and much of the linen cloth home-wove. The difficulty of making the lace prevented its becoming tiresome,-a danger that threatens not only macramé lace, but all our other "decorative art" revivals. It may be said of most of these things, as is said of a certain kind of cheese, that a very little goes a great way. A drop of attar-of-roses will scent a drawer for a thousand years, as any one may prove who will try it, and so a very little macramé lace will be enough in any household. It will serve to take the edge off the commonplace of an occasional pine-table, or to enliven the upstairs bedroom mantel-piece, or, edging the toilet-cover in the spare bachelor's bedroom, will perhaps cheer the occupant's loneliness with thoughts of the womanly fingers that wove it. But we do not think it serves any useful purpose wound around flower-pots, or fringing wood-boxes, helping parlor coal-bins to play the gay deceiver and put on Ottoman airs; nor do we see how good taste and common sense can continue to live together like brother and sister, as they should do, if we keep on putting this sturdy peasant lace, born in a cottage and meant for hard work, to doing duty for silk fringe round chairs or No. 6. MACRAMÉ LACE. (AMERICAN DESIGN). and tables covered with the most expensive silk plush. THE TELEPHONE AND THE PHONOGRAPH. Two recent American inventions are at the present moment exciting the wonder and admiration of the civilized world. The first, known as the telephone, or far-speaker, is a device for transmitting to a distance over an electric circuit, and accurately reproducing thereat, all kinds of sounds, including those of the human voice; the second, called by its inventor the phonograph, or sound-recorder, is a device for permanently recording and faithfully reproducing, at any time or place, all kinds of sounds, including those of the human voice. The function of the telephone is analogous to that of a speaking-tube capable of almost infinite extension, through which conversa tion may be carried on as readily as with persons in the same room. The function of the phonograph is to stereotype the actual tones of the human voice, so that they may be preserved or bottled up, as it were, and kept for future use. Although a description of these inventions must necessarily partake of a somewhat more scientific character than is usually found in the columns of a popular magazine, I shall endeavor to make it as free from technicalities as possible. It is well known that the sensation which we call sound is excited by the action of the vibrations of the atmosphere upon the tympanum or drum of the ear, and that these vibrations are conveyed from the tympanum | given time, the greater is the amplitude of the movement of the tympanum, and consequently of the mechanism which acts upon the nerves. Hence it follows that the function of the human ear is the mechanical transmission to the auditory nerves of each expansion and contraction which occurs in the surrounding medium, while that of the nerves is to convey to the brain the sensations thus produced. A series of vibrations, a definite number of which are produced in a given time, and of which we thus become cognizant, is called a tone. The action which has thus reached our consciousness, being a purely mechanical one, may be rendered much more easy of comprehension ample, we assume the horizontal line a b to represent a certain period of time, let the curves extending above the line a b ab bones termed, respectively, the hammer, | by graphical delineation. If, for exanvil and stirrup. In the process of reproducing tone by electro-magnetism, an artificial imitation of the mechanism of the human ear is employed, consisting of a stretched membrane or diaphragm corresponding to the tympanum, which by its vibrations generates and controls an electric circuit extended to a distant station by a metallic conductor. Before proceeding to give a description of the apparatus employed for communicating or reproducing articulate speech at a distance, it I will be well to devote some consideration to the process by which the ear distinguishes the vibrations of a particular tone, or the aggregate of the vibrations of all the tones which simultaneously act upon it, for by this means we may be enabled to ascertain the conditions under which the transmitting and receiving apparatus must act in order to effect the desired result. If we analyze the process by which the ear distinguishes a simple sound, we find that a tone results from the alternate expansion and condensation of an elastic medium. If this process takes place in the medium in which the ear is situated, namely, the atmosphere, then at each recurring condensation the elastic membrane or tympanum will be pressed inward, and these vibrations will be transmitted, by the mechanism above referred to, to the auricular nerves. The greater the degree of conden sation of the elastic medium in a FIGS. 1, 2, 3. GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF SOUND VIBRATIONS. VOL. XV.-59. represent the successive condensations (+), | and the curves below the line the successive expansions (-), then each ordinate represents the degree of condensation or expansion at the moment of time corresponding to its position upon the line a b and also the amplitude of the vibrations of the tympanum. A simple musical tone results from a continuous, rapid, and uniformly recurring series of vibrations, provided the number of complete vibrations per second falls within certain limits. If, for example, the vibrations number less than seven or eight per second, a series of successive noises are heard instead of a tone, while, if their number exceeds forty thousand per second, the ear becomes incapable of appreciating the sound. The ear distinguishes three distinct qualities in sound: 1. The tone or pitch, by virtue of which sounds are high or low, and which depends upon the rapidity of the vibratory movement. The more rapid the vibrations, the more acute will be the sound. 2. The intensity, by virtue of which sounds are loud or soft, and which depends upon the amplitude of the vibrations. 3. The quality, by which we are able to distinguish a note sounded, for example, upon a violin, from the same note when sounded upon a flute. By a remarkable series of experimental investigations, Helmholtz succeeded in demonstrating that the different qualities of sounds depend altogether upon the number and intensity of the overtones which accompany the primary tones of those sounds. The different characteristics of sound may be graphically represented, and the phenomena thus rendered more easy of comprehension. In figure 1, for example, let the lines c 8 represent a certain length of time, and the continuous curved line the successive vibrations producing a simple tone. The curves above the line represent the compression of the air, and those below the line its rarefaction; the air-an elastic medium-is thus thrown into vibrations which transmit the sound waves to the ear. The ear is unable to appreciate any sensations of sound other than those produced by vibrations, which may be represented by curves similar to that above described. Even if several tones are produced simultaneously, the elastic medium of transmission is under the influence of several forces acting at the same time, and which are subject to the ordinary laws of mechanics. If the different forces act in the same direction, the total force is represented by their sum, while, if they act in opposite directions, it is represented by the difference between them. In figure three distinct simple tones, c, g, and e, are represented, the rapidity of the vibrations being in the proportion of 8, 6, and 5. The composite tone resulting from the simultaneous production of the three simple tones is represented graphically by the fourth line, which correctly exhibits to the eye the effect produced upon the ear by the three simultaneously acting simple tones. Figure 2 represents a curve formed of more than three tones, in which the relations do not appear so distinctly, but a musical expert will readily recognize them, even when it would be difficult in practice for him to distinguish the simple tones in such a chord. This method of showing the action of tones upon the human ear possesses the advantage of giving the clearest illustration possible of the entire process. We may even understand by reference to figure 3 why it is that the ear is so disagreeably affected by a discord. It will be observed that the curves in the diagram represent the three characteristics of sound which have been referred to. The pitch is denoted by the number of vibra waves recurring within a given horizontal distance; the intensity, by the amplitude of the vibrations-that is, their comparative height above or depth below the horizontal line; and the quality, by the form of the waves themselves. It is, therefore, easy to understand that if, by any means whatever, we can produce vibrations whose curves correspond to those of a given tone or a given combination of tones, the same impression will be produced upon the ear that would have been produced by the original tone, whether simple or composite. The earliest experiments in the production of musical sounds at a distance, by means of electro-magnetism, appear to have been made in 1861 by Philip Reiss, of Friedrichsdorf, Germany. His apparatus was constructed in the manner shown in figure 4. A is a hollow box, provided with two apertures,-one at the top and the other in front. The former is covered with a membrane, S, tightly stretched in a circular frame. When a person sings into the mouthpiece, M, which is inserted in the front opening, the whole force of his voice In this method a separate series of electrical impulses of varying strength as well as rapidity passed into the line, thus reproducing at the distant end the intensities of the vibrations, corresponding to the graphic representation on the fourth or bottom line of figure 1. By this means a tune could be reproduced at any distance, with perfect accuracy, including its pitch, varying intensity and quality of sound. With a receiving instrument consisting of an electromagnet, having its armature rigidly fixed to one pole, and separated from the other by a space of of an inch, and mounted upon a hollow sounding-box which, like that of a violin, responded to all vibrations which were communicated to it, the tones became very loud and distinct. is concentrated on the tight membrane, to the reproduction of harmonic musical which is thrown into vibrations correspond- tones and of articulate speech, as it enabled ing exactly with the vibrations of the air any required number of different tones to be produced by the sound of the singing. A reproduced simultaneously, without destroythin piece of platinum is glued to the center ing their individuality. of the membrane and connected with the binding screw, a, in which a wire from the battery, B, is fixed. Upon the membrane rests a little tripod, e, f, g, of which the feet, e and f, rest in metal cups upon the circular frame over which the skin is stretched. One of them, f, rests in a mercury cup connected with the binding screw, b. The third foot, g, consisting of a platinum contact-point, lies on the strip of platinum which is placed upon the center of the vibrating membrane and hops up and down with it. By this means the closed circuit which passes through the apparatus from a to b is momentarily broken for every vibration of the membrane. The receiving instrument, R, consists of a coil or helix, inclosing an iron rod and fixed upon a hollow sounding-box, and is founded on the fact-first investigated by Professor Joseph Henry-that iron bars, when magnetized by means of an electric current, become slightly elongated, and at the interruption of the current are restored to their normal length. In the receiving instrument these elongations and shortenings of the iron bar will succeed each other with precisely the same interval as the vibrations of the original tone, and the longitudinal vibrations of the bar will be communicated to the sounding-box, thus being made distinctly audible at the receiving station. Reiss's apparatus was capable of producing only one of the three characteristics of sound, viz., its pitch. It could not produce different degrees of intensity or other qualities of tones, but merely sung, with its own voice,-which was not very unlike that of a toy-trumpet, the melodies transmitted. Referring to the graphic representation of the composite tone in figure 1, this apparatus would reproduce the waves at properly recurring intervals, but they would all be of precisely the same amplitude or intensity, for the reason that they were all produced by an electric current of the same strength. In the spring of 1874, Mr. Elisha Gray, of Chicago, invented a method of electrical transmission by means of which the intensity of the tones, as well as their pitch, was properly reproduced at the receiving station. This was a very important discovery, in fact, a prerequisite to the development of the telephone both in respect Subsequently Mr. Gray conceived the idea of controlling the formation of what may be termed the electric waves, as represented in the diagram, figures 1, 2, and 3, by means of the vibrations of a diaphragm capable of responding to sounds of every kind traversing the atmosphere, so arranged as to reproduce these vibrations at a distance. When this was accomplished the problem of the transmission and reproduction of articulate speech over an electric conductor was theoretically solved. The principle and mode of operation of Gray's original telephone are shown in the accompanying figure 5. The person transmitting sounds speaks into the mouthpiece T. D, is a diaphragm of some thin substance capable of responding to the various complex vibrations produced by the human voice. To the center of the diaphragm, one end of a light metallic rod, N, is rigidly attached, the other extending into a glass vessel, J, placed beneath the chamber. This vessel, whose lower end is closed by a metallic plug, p, is filled with slightly acidulated water, or some other liquid of the same specific resistance, and the metallic plug or end placed in connection with one terminal of an electric circuit, the other end being joined by a very light wire to the rod, N, near the diaphragm. It will thus be seen that the water in the vessel forms a part of the circuit through which the current from a battery placed in this circuit will pass. Now, as the excursions of the plunger-rod vary with the amplitude of the several |