A curious and striking invention, called "a telephone," the effect
of which is to telegraph musical sound, and even tunes, through any length of wire, has been made, it is said, by Mr. Elisha Gray, of Chicago. The keys of an instrument are connected with electro-magnets, so that, touching a key, the corresponding magnet is set in operation, and a tongue or reed in connec- tion with it is set vibrating ; the sound each of these tongues gives out is transmitted a thousand miles by wire, and there received on a reflecting surface, 'the tune being distinctly heard. Mr. Gray hopes one day to be able to transmit the sound of the human voice also by telegraph, so that we might talk to each other audibly across the Atlantic ; but towards this curious result nothing seems to have been•yet done, nor has it ever been "easy to resolve articulate sounds into mere vibrations. Talking .acrote the Atlantic would indeed have an eerie and ghostly effect
of its own. The nest step would be to enable the interlocutors to see each other three thousand miles off, which to the popular mind would be not a more, but a less difficult proceeding.
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