Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1891-12-25
TELL-TALE AUTOMATON.
CONTRIVANCES TO PREVENT
REGULATION.
watching of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Me-
ohanical Spies and Night Guards
Used i'm PostOhices and
Elsewhere.

A largo part of every civilized CON-
munity is always kept busily employed
in watching, other members OF the
community. in keeping guard to pre-
vent depreciation, and in putting down
records to be used. possibly as evidence
in future law suits. Such work is a
very extensive part of every large
business and there is a constant effort
to keep down the expences of such
work. The problem is always how to
watch the watchmen.
Take, for instance, watchmen in the
big buildings. 1t is necessary that
they should visit every part of their
buildings at frequent periods during
the night in order TO prevent fires
getting under Roadway, or to discover
leaks in water pipes, or to interrupt
burglars. But when the Waterman
is left alone in his building, who is to
say whether he has faithfully perform
ed his duty or has lain down peace
fully to sleepP Now, there are num-
Der of mechanical devices, says the
New York Sun, which are arranged
so that the Waterman must make his
rounds in order to produce record
that shall show that he has made
| them. The general plan Of these
things is to put something at each
stated point which the Waterman must
touch in order 20 make the record
which demonstrates his faithfulness.
One contrlvance is big clock with
dial having lot OF holes and cor
responding pins. In order TO push a
/ certain pin inta q certain hole the
Waterman must go to a certain part of
the building and pull string. If he
fails to do this at a given time the alb
sence Of the pin from the holes tells
the story Of his remissness. There is
only one way to get the pin into that
hole, and that is TO do his duty at the
precise time required. This sort OF a
device has been in use for number of
years. 1t is purely mechanical de-
, vice.
Within the clockwork OF an electric
al apparatus was paper dial divided
by radial lines and carried around by
clockwork in synchronism with an
hour hand in the usual manner of all
electric clocks. The record of the
visitations made by watchmen in pa
trolling the various stations was made
by means OF perforations in the sheet
OF paper by needle points attached to
the prolongation OF the armatures OF
electro connected with cir
cult reaching to some one OF the sew
eral stations In order to make his
record the Waterman was compelled
TO go TO certain box and insert key
and turn it around,once thus creating
circuit,to convey his record There
is no electricity in any portion OF this
system except at the instant when the
Waterman generates it by the act of
turning key at station box. II he
goes to the wrong box, or does not go
at ALL the clock dial has blank TO
show him up.
The ingenuity of watchmen in find
ing out the ways TO work dials with
out making their rounds has taxed the
fertility of inventors TO devise methods
to prevent such dishonesty. One OF
these is watch clock with a safety
lock so contrived that the Waterman
cannot see the dial, and records any
attempt to open ii. There are twelve
different keys securely fastened at
so many different points inside or out
side the building. There is a paper
dial and marking apparatus inside the
clock. The watchman must carry his
clock to the place where the key is
and there make his record by insert
ing the key. The apparatus punches
the paper dial so as to show at what
times during the night the Waterman
visited each station. Precautions
must be taken TO prevent the watch
man from getting a set of keys and
making all his records from one COM
Portable place in the building. In the
same category may be placed the var
ious contrivances for tSlegraphic and
telephone signals from policemen on
their beats in use in this and various
other cities.
The frequency of fires arising from
the neglect OF watchmen properly to
patrol their buildings has led to the
invention OF various appliances for
automatic fire alarms The general
plan of these is that the heat of the fire
sets a mechanism in motion TO ring
bells. An ingenious device is one that
makes the fire put itself out by releas-
ing stop cocks that let on showers of
water from reservoirs in the building.
Once in a while the apparatus makes
trouble by letting on a shower of water
when there isn't any fire.
1t often happens in business that IL
is necessary to record upon docu-
ment the precise time at which 1t was
received. There is, for instance, in
the postoffice, pretense of recording
on letter the time OF its receipt and
delivery by means Of stamps denoting
the hour. But this record is never
absolutely correct as all the letters
received within a certain half hour
are stamped as received at the end of
that half hour.
There has been, however, tor sew
eral years time stamp in use which
records the actual stamp time by
| stamping and it changes automatical-