The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1898-01-11
PATENT REMINDERS,
SOME FUNNY THINGS WHICH IN
VENTORS HAVE MADE.

gagements-Many Devices for the Con-
venience of Sleepy Heads-One to Thwart
the Grave RObber.
Psychologists assert that civilized hui
man beings are growing more absent
minded. The average man of intelli-
I gence today is not alert, not SO con-
/ scious Of his immediate environments
as he was century ago. He does more
thinking than he did then, and a great
er part of his business in life is left to
the purely mechanical brain functions.
The inventors, always step ahead Of
the requirements of the times, are al
ready 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,
having an engagement at a certain hour,
sets the watch, and when the time ar
rives a little needle point pricks 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 a certain time in the
morning. To provide for thie require
ment many ingenious persons Ave APP
piled their talents to the production of
contrivances for awakening people and
compelling them to arise There is
kJnd of hndcfoad Fo~ 1v,1a
holds it's mattress in frame that is re-
tanned 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
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 employment of tin pan and
weight hung by cord. When the
hands of a clock reach certain point,
the weight is released and falls upon
the pan, making direful racket. An
other oddity is frame from which are
suspended number of corks During
the night it is lowered gradually by a
clockwork 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 I'M
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 acct
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 person
who attempts to blow out the gas Tits
a delicately balanced eleotrode and
closes circuit, giving an alarm in the
office. Another kind Of alarm, patented
by Chicago man, notifies the house
holder of escaping gas. II you are
afraid of pickpockets, you can obtain
protection by wearing small machine
that makes big disturbance in case
anybody tries to put his hand into your
pocket.
Even after death you may find alarms
service. If a grave robber comes
along, a torpedo placed in the coffin for
that purpose will blow him to smither-
Gems. Surprising that the disturbance
wakes you to life again, a clockwork
mechanism will start bell to ringing,
while a red flag runs up to the top of
the tombstone, giving notice that
prompt resurrection is desired. Speak
ing of waking up suggests mention of
some odd contrivances for doing neces-
sary things before getting out of bed in
the morning. One of these, patented by
a lazy Vermonter, enables one to turn
on the draft Of stove or furnace and
then turn over for a supplementary
snooze. This, however, is a primitive
continuance compared with the inven-
ton of resident Of Providence which
provides for the feeding Of a whole sta
bleful Of live stock at daybreak. Mr..
Sleepy Head simply turns on his pillow
and jerks a cord, which opens valve
in the stable and lets down the requisite
quantity of feed into trough.
There are quite number of inven-
tions for lighting the fire in the morn
ing without getting out of bed. They
are all operated by clookwork. The best
of them is credited to an Illinois genius.
A clock is set for certain time, and
when the proper minute is reached the
mechanism throws" lever, which
draws match across piece Of sandpa-
per and ignites the kindling. One of the
latest patents is for street lamp which
has clockwork apparatus attached to
it. At the correct moment for which
the machine is set it closes an electric
circuit, at the same time opening the
gas pipe Immediately the gas is ignit-
ed, and it burns until shut off by the
clockwork at daybreak in the morning.
In this way the street lamps all over
city may be made to light themselves
simultaneously without the interven-
tion of human hands.
A citizen Of Austin is the author Of a
sort of water clock that is wound by
rain. On the roof of house is trough |
that catches the rainwater, 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 or
binary clock. The bucket falls and by
its weight pulls up the clock weight,
thus winding the clock Finally the
bucket reaches the floor, when valve
in its bottom opens and the water runs
out. Then it ascends and resumes it's
original position, SO as to be ready to
wind the clock up again after awhile.
Washington Cor. Philadelphia Times
Povdered Crab aa n nTadfcsuo