Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-11-16
cLocKWoRK LAMpLlGHrER.
A Curious Invention tn he Attached to
Street Lamps In Boston.

Street Lamp In Boston.
For some time past pedestrians on
State street have remarked a peculiar
attachment to the lamp post at the cor
ner Of State and Devonshire streets, and
many have been the surmises as TO the
contents of the little iron box and its
usages. With the curiosity usually as
cribed to a reporter, one o. the Herald
staff determined TO ascertain, If posi-
bic. what the curious little box was for,
and also how it came to be placed upon
this particular lamp post. Superintend-
ent Allen. of the lamp department. was
visited, and when informed of the OBJ
ject of the visit, said it was an arrange
ment for lighting the gas at a certain
hour each night and turning it out at a
certain hour in the morning. In fact, it
is a newly invented machine designed to
do tie work of the lamplighter, with
the single exception Of cleaning the
lamp. 1t has a clockwork arrangement
which Is 10 CIRCULATED that il conforms
to the moons changes and lights the gas
and puts il out early or late, according
to the fullness of the moon or the change
in time of rising or setting.
The machine is about the shape Of a
pear, and contains a clock of the eight
day pattern, which in urn is attached To
a illuminate cylinder in which are 40C
small pit holes filed with a waterproof
illuminate compound. Or enough to last
a whole year. In place OF the alarm or
the clock. rs a spring which is attached
TO the cylinder, and when the hands of
the clock point TO the designated hour,
the cylinder is turned by a ratchet having
the same number of teeth as there are
pits on thecircle of the cylinder; a spring
is ~loosened, the gas turned on, and a
small hammer strikes of the pit
holes, and the result is that the gas is
lighted at a uniform hour all over the
city, or wherever the appliance is at
tached. BY a simple mechanism after
the gas is lighted the reverse is the order,
and at the time at which the clock is set
in the morning the gas is turned off all
over the city.
A man is only required to visit each
street lamp by the new arrangement
once a week TO clean the lamp, and al
the same time TO wind the clock; or, il
he should happen to miss a day, the
work would be performed just the same
by this automatic lamplighter, as the
clocks run nine days. The machine is
placed In a dust and water proof case,
and is so simple that it is almost impos.
sible for it to get out OF order. AT pres.
ent a lamplighter is required to make
fourteen trips each week for the purpose
of lighting and extinguishing the lamps.
Each lamplighter now cares for about
eighty-fouc lamps, whereas by the new
method he can care for fifty lamps a
day OIL $50 a week, as all be has to do ii
to once each week clean the lamp and
wind the clock. Last year the cost oi
labor in cleaning and lighting the lamp:
of Boston was SS.74 per lamp, while the
inventors Of the new lighting system
claim that the lamps can be cared for
as far as labor is concerned, for foui
cents per week for each lamp, or $2.0c
per lamp per year, n saving of over =
a year on each lamp, and there are ovel
10000 lamps in the city of Boston, thu
the saving would be, for labor alone
about $GO, 000.-BostOn Herald.