The Portland daily press., 1897-08-24
(From the Philadelphia Times. J

Which Prevents Hayseeds from Blow
ing the Out Gas. g
(From the Philadelphia Times.)
Washington, Aug. IA Psychologists
assert that civilized human beings are
growing more absent minded The aver
age man of intelligence today is not so
alert. not so conscious of his Immediate
environments, as he was century ago.
He does more thinking than he did then.
and a greater part of his business in life
ia left to the purely mechanical brain
functions.
The inventors, always step ahead of
the requirements of the times are already
at work devising contrivances to summon
absent attention. One of the latest of
these is bracelet that has an alarm
watch attached to it. The wearer hav-
ing an engagement alta certain hour, sets
the watch, and when the time arrives a
little needy point pricks her arm and re-
minds her of the duty to be performed.
This is only one of many devices for like
purposes. People want to be relieved of
the trouble of calling things to mind, and
that is one reason why there are so many
inventions employing clockwork.
4 At the Patent Office a large class of in
We ntions is comprised under the head of
ssalarms' these being machines by
which persons who otherwise would not
think are made to think The average in
dividual is obliged, however unwillingly.
to get up at a certain time in the morn,
ing. To provide for this requirement.
many ingenious persons have applied
their talents to the production of contri-
ing them to arise. There is o kind of
bedstead, for example, which holds its
mattress in a frame that is retained in
the normal position by catch. At the
proper hour the catch operated by clock
work mechanism, loses it's grip, and the
mattress frame becomes vertical instead
of horizontal, throwing SIeepyhead out
| upon the floor.
| There is another sort of bed which let's
the head of the sleepy person drop when
getting up time arrives, one end Of the
mattress frame collapsing. But one of
| the queerest of the patented methods of
waking people up involves the employ
ment of tin pan and q weight hung by
cord. When the hands of clock reach
a cerain point the weight Is released and
falls upon the pan, making a direful
IdCk6u. AuOUubT OQUlOy ID a ITbll6 IrOIn
which are suspended number of corks.
During the night it is lowered gradually
by olookwork mechanism, until at the
proper hour and minute the dangling
| corks begin to bob against the nose and
face of the sleeper. OF course he wakes
up. The most obvious advantage of these
sleep alarms is that they render anxiety
on the part of the sleeper unnecessary, SO
far as rising Is concerned. He can
| snooze undisturbed by the necessity of
watching himself
Hayseed visitors in the city will insist
on blowing out the gas, Notwithstanding
all the newspaper jokes on the subject
10 provide against such accidents, citi-
zen of Ashland, Wis. has invented a little
apparatus that is intended to be attached
to every gas fixture in hotel. The breath
of a person who attempts to blow out the
gas tilts delicately balanced electrode
an d closes circuit, giving an alarm in
the office. Another kind OF alarm, pat
ented by Chicago man, notifies the
householder of escaping gas. II you are
afraid of pickpockets, you can obtain pro-
lection by wearing a small machine that
makes big disturbance in case anybody
tries to put his hand into your pocket.
Even after death you may find alarms a
service. If a grave robber comes along,
torpedo placed in the coffin for that pur-
pose will blow him to smithereens. Sup
posing that the disturbance wakes you to
life again, a clockwork mechanism will
| start bell to ringing, while red flag
runs up to the top of the tom bstone, Civ
ing notice that prompt resurrection is
desired. Speaking OF waking up, sug-
gests mention of some odd contrivances
for doing necessary things before getting
out Of bed in the morning. One OF these,
patented by lazy vermonter, enables
one to turn on the draught of stove OF
furnace, and then turn over for a supple
mentary snooze. This, however, is a
primitive continuance compared with the
invention of resident OF Providence,
R. l., which provides for the feeding of q
whole stableful of live stock at daybreak.
Mr.. Sleepyhead simply turns on his pill
low and jerks a cord. which opens a valve
in the stable and let's down the requisite
quantity of feed into trough.
There are quite number Of inventions
for lighting the fire in the morning with
out getting out Of bed They are all
operated by clockwork. The newest and
best of them isfcredited to an Illinois gem
ius. A clock Is set for certain time,
and, when the proper minute is reached,
the mechanism throws" lever, which
draws a match across piece OF sand
paper and ignites the kindling. One of
the latest patents is for a street lamp
which has clockwork apparatus at
tached to it. At the correct moment for
which the machine is set it closes an cleo
trio circuit, at the same time opening the
gas pipe. Immediately the gas ia ignited,
and 1t burns until shut of BY the clock
work at daybreak In the morning. In
this the street lamps all over a city may
be made to light themselves simultan-
eously without the Intervention Of human
hands.
Something quite new is continuance
by which eggs are made to time their
own boiling. A little wire basket con-
tanning the eggs is put Into the pot, and
clockwork mechanism is set for three
minutes stay. At the end Of the three
minutes the machine pulls the basket out
of the pot. Parenthetically it may be re-
marked that there are a great many inter
esting inventions that have to do with
eggs.
A citizen of Austin, Tex, is the author
of a sort of water clock that Is wound by
rain. On the roof Of house is a trough
that catches the rain water which flows
into the tank. When the tank Is filed
to certain point it empties the water
into bucket which Is connected by a
cord with the winding drum of an ordi-
nary clock. The. bucket falls and by its
weight pulls up the clock weight, thus