Wichita eagle., 1889-03-26
A NEW INVENTION,


There is on exhibition at the Office and
building Of n. A. English, on south side OF
Douglas avenue. near the bridge. a piece
of mechanism which seems destined to
work revolution in the management OF
| schools hotels and other establishments
where perfect system is desired. This
| piece of machinery is called the "Hotel
Guest CALI and is the invention Of A J..
Reams, who is the owner of the patent.
1t is a wonderful thing, and simple. 1t is
| in fact an automatic signal and alarm
| clock run by battery. which has an at
tachment whereby any guest in any room
OF a hotel is promptly awakened at any
desired time without the intervention of
Waterman, call boy or anybody else. 1t
is self-winder and takes the place Of an
ordinary hotel railway time keeper. Be-
low the dial is arranged what is called a
time-board, with compartments numbered
from one to twelve, to correspond with the
figures on the dial. In each of these COM
partments are twelve small steel bars
one for each hour from to
II. Each of these bars is
perforated with number OF
small holes, arranged SO that calls can be
made every five minutes Below the time
board are number of insulated wires and
an ordinary hotel enunciator. The man
ner of working it is extremely simple.
I'm hotel,' said Mr.. Reams. "a guest
in No 10. for instance, desires to be called,
say at o'clock. The clerk takes the wire
on the bottom, corresponding to No. 10
and inserts it in the metal bar on the
time board, in the hole which stands for
that hour. When the clock marks 3
o'clock the electric bell In No. 10 rings,
and the guest is reused" Mr.. Reams then
explained that persons could be called in
all of the rooms at any hour, the clery
having nothing to do but insert the pegs
when the order was given, leaving the
clock to do the rest. He also showed how.
by means of a small lever at the top of the
board, the clerk, in case of fire, could set
every bell in the house to ringing at the
same time and thus arouse everybody.
Mr. Reams invented the clock IN 1856
but perfected it last year. 1t will be a
splendid thing for public schools. The
time for each lesson or class can be called
in each room from day to day by the clock
without any trouble at all, and when the
time of any class for any room is to be
changed all there is to do is to stick the
plugs in the time board at the hours de-
sired for the particular room where the
change has been made. When these hours
are reached by the clock the alarms are
sounded and the attention of the teachers
called to the changes. He has also patent
ed an electric motor for winding the clock,
so chat the only attention 1t will need after
being placed in school where the routine
is the same query day is to have the bat
terry renewed once year.
Mr.. Reams desires to form joint stock
company for the manufacture of this Won
derful invention in Wichita The price at
which it can be furnished is so reasonable
that no hotel can afford to be without it.
Hotels already supplied with wires are
only required to attach the clock and
anunciator and the thing is done. Mr..
Reams will take pleasure in showing the
workings Of his invention to anyone and
all are invited, especially such as would
like to embark with him in profitable