The Arizona champion., 1891-05-16
cLockWoRK lAMPLIehrER.
A Curious Invention to Bs Attached {
 Street Iarn v,s In Rostnu

Curious Invention to Bs Attached to Street Lamps 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 it's usages. With the curiosity usually as- cribed to reporter, one of the Herald staff determined to ascertain, if possi- ble, what the curious little box was for. and also how 1t came to be placed upon this particular lamp post. Superintend- ent Allen, of the lamp department, was visited, and when informed of the ob- ject of the visit, said 1t was an arrange ment for lighting the gas at certain hour each night and turning it out at a certain hour in the morning In fact, 1t is newly invented machine designed to do the work of the lamplighter. with the single exception of cleaning the lamp. It has a clockwork arrangement which Is so regulated that it conforms to the moons changes and lights the gas and puts it 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 clock of the eight day pattern, which in turn Is attached to a illuminate cylinder in which arc 400 small pit holes filled with waterproof illuminate compound, or enough to last a whole year. In place of the alarm on the clock, is 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 ratchet having the same number of teeth as there are pits on the circle of the cylinder: spring Is loosened, the gas turned on, and a small hammer strikes one of the pit holes, and the result is that the gas is lighted at uniform hour all over the city, or wherever the appliance Is at tached. By 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 ali 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 at the same time to wind the clock; or. If he should happen to miss 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 30 simple that 1t is almost impos- sible for it to get out of order. At pres ent a iamplighter is required to make fourteen trips each week for the purpose of lighting and extinguishiDg the lamps.
 Each lamplighter now cares for about eighty-four lamps, whereas by the new method he can care for fifty lamps e day or $50 a week, as all he has to do Is to once each week clean the lamp and wind the clock. Last year the cost of labor in cleaning and lighting the lalups of Boston was $s.A per lamp, while the inventors of the new lighting system claim that the lamps can be cared for, ss far as labor is concerned, for four cents per week for each lamp, or $2.08 per lamp per year, saving cf over 90 a year on each lamp, and theie are over 10000 lamps in the city of Boston, thus the saving would be, fe~ labor alone, about $80, ,000.--Boston Herald.