Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-04-28

Psychologists assert that civilized hu- man beings are growing more apsen5- minded. The average man of lntelh- gence today is not alert, not so con soious of his immediate environments, as he was a century ago. He does more thinking than he did then, and great CT part of his business in life IS le15 to the purely mechanical brain functions
 The inventors, always step ahead or the requirements of the times, are al' ready at work devising oontrlyances to summon absent attention. One of the latest of these is a bracelet that has an alarm watch attached to 1t. The wearer, having an engagement at a certain hour sets the watch, and when the time ar rives a little needle point bricks her arm and reminds her of the duty.
 At the patent office large class of inventions is comprised under the head of "alarms ''-these being machines by which persons who otherwise would not think are made to think. The average individual is obliged, however unwill- ingly, to get up at certain time ID the morning. To provide for this require ment many ingenious persons have ap- piled their talents to the production of contrivances for awakening people and compelling them to arise. There Is kind of bedstead, for example, which holds its mattress in frame that is re- tained in the normal position by a catch. At the proper hour the catch, operated by a clockwork mechanism, loses it's grip, and the mattress frame becomes vertical instead of horizontal, throwing sleepy head out upon the floor.
 There is another sort of bed which lets the head of the sleepy person drop when getting up time arrives, one end of the mattress frame eollapsing. Bus one of the queerest of the patented methods of waking people up involves the employment of tin pan and a weight hung by cord. When the hands of clock reach certain point, the weight is released and falls upon the pan, making a direfu1 racket. An other oddity is frame from which are
  the night 1t is lowered gradually by a clockwork mechanism until at the proper hour and minute the dangling oorks 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 un- necessary, so far as rising is concerned. He can snooze undisturbed by the neces- sity of watching himself.
 Hayseed visitors in the city will in- sist on blowing out the gas notwith- standing all the newspaper jokes on the subject To provide against such acci- dents, citizen of Ashland, Wis, has invented little apparatus that is in- tended to be attached to every gas fix ture in hotel. The breath of a person who attempts to blow out the gas tilts a delicately balanced electrode and closes circuit, giving an alarm in the office. Another kind of alarm, patented by Chicago man, notifies the house. holder of escaping gas. If you are afraid of pickpockets, you can obtain protection by wearing small machine that makes Q big disturbance in case anybody tries to put his hand into your pocket.
 Even after death you may find alarms 8 service. If a grave robber comes along, torpedo placed in the coffin for that purpose will blow him to smither- hok %ho T scA,, wakes you to life again, clockwork mechanism will start a bell to ringing, while red flag runs up to the top of the tombstone, giving notice that a prompt resurrection is desired Speak ing of waking up suggests mention of some odd contrivances for doing neoes- sary things before getting out of bed in the morning. One of these, patented by a lazy Nermonter, enables one to turn on tho draft of 9 stove or furnace and then turn over for supplementary snooze. This, however, is a primitive contriYance compared with the inven. tion of resident of Providence which provides for the feeding of q whole sta- bleful of live stock at daybreak. MT. Sleepy Head simply turns on his pillow and jerks cord which opens a valve in the stable and lets down the requisite quantity of feed into trough.
 There are quite a number of inven- tions for lighting the fire in the morn. ing without getting out of bed. They are all operated by clockwork The best of them is credited to all Illinois genius. A clock is set for certain time, and when the proper minute is reached the mechanism "throws" lever, which draws a match across a piece of sandpa. per and ignites the kindling One of the latest patents is for street lamp which has @ clockwork apparatus attached to