The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1905-08-25
slot MACHINE FOR HOT WATER
Paris street Lamps Made to Take
the Place of the Family Kettle.
York Herald.

the Place of the Family Kettle,
New York Herald.
A novel penny-in-the-slot machine,
after a triumphal debut in Paris,
is touring through England and earning
enthusiastic encomiums wherever it
makes it's appearance. 1t win doubtless
ere long, as 1T is the custom of success
ful debulantes to do, cross tAe billowy
Atlantic and meet with an equally
hearty reception here.
The invention in question is a hot wa
ter street lamp slot machine, that is so
practical, so infallible, that ere long
the ordinary street lamps in use
will become quaint relics Of a rude past,
and will be collected by the antiquary,
along with brass candlesticks and flint
and finder boxes. In their place there
will be at the street corners big orna-
mental columns, with improved and
magnihed lights at the top, the neat
from which, instead of being allowed to
go to waste in the atmosphere, will be
used to boil water. At the base will be
placed a machine, into the slot of which
an eager public will drop a cent and
get a gallon of boiling water In ex-
change at any hour of the day or night.
A Frenchman is credited with having
originated the idea of utilizing in this
way the heat generated in h street
lamps of cities. However this may be.
1t is certain that these public boilers
were first set up in Paris, where their
success was instantaneous and unqual-
flied.
Every morning gossiping janitors,
cabmen n maids may be seen clus-
tered around the lamp post fountains,
1 awaitipo tbair t11rpc with poj1c opd nan.
MES, delighted at being able to obtain
a bountiful supply Of hot water so eco
nomically and with such little trouble,
for the ordinary houses of the French
capital are not fitted with the same
conveniences as the houses of New York
and coal costs 60 cents a hundred
weight.
The machine has now been tried in
London and several other large cities in
the United Kingdom, where it has come
to be regarded in The light of al indis-
pensable adjunct to civilization, with
, out which life would be no longer worth
living.
The possibilities of the scheme are, in
fact, limitless. Each machine supplies
fifteen gallons of boiling water an hour,
or a gallon every four minutes. What
this means can be easily imagined when
1t is reflected hat at least a half million
dollars worth of heating power must be
annually wasted in the gas lamps of the
streets of New York alone. The estab-
lishment Of one Of these machines at
each street corner or in the yards of our
tenement houses would largely help to
solve the problem of comfortable living,
especially in summer, when the added
warmth thrown out by even a single
gas burner, without reckoning a fire, is
insupportable.
1t would supply water for all needs OF
cleaning, and almost all of cooking,
much more cheaply than the people
could get it by the use of fires, and
would, moreover, do away with the heat
n dirt of the latter. Then, in winter,
when the water pipes in the house are
frozen, what a convenience to be able to
get a pail of hot water at any time for
little. more than the trouble of fetch
ing it!
That it would supply a real want is
proved by the fact that there are a con-
siderable number of people Who make
a snug income in the tenements of Lon
don-and possibly in those of New York
for all I know-by selling hot water in
the summer n ever in winter, at 2
cents a kettleful. One woman is said
to have made a tidy fortune by starting
such a bushes in an east end tenement
district and then selling it out when it
had reached good paying proportions.
Another advantage of the machine is
that in seaboard towns it could supply
sea Water just as easily as fresh water,
SO that poor families could, for a few
cents, enjoy the luxury of a bath of hot
sea water obtained on tap at their very
doors.
No wonder, then, that it has Caught
on in England, where, for that matter,
the practicability of the slot machine
idea was long g recognized and turned
to profitable account.
One enterprising a company sup
plies houses with a slot meter. The oc-
cupant of the house drops in an English
penny, OF 2-cent piece, when he wants a
light, and a certain number of cubic feet
of gas is furnished by the meter. When
the gas goes out he drops another penny
in the slot and the supply is renewed. BY
this means the company is never put to
any trouble in collecting its.
n never has any unpaid bills to worry
| about and deduct from it's profits, while
on the other hand, the householder has
the satisfaction of knowing that he
doesn't owe a red cent to the company,
that the latter cannot overcharge him
and that he has paid for the lighting OF
his house in such insignificant INSTALL
ments that he hasn't missed the money.
The san system has been put in oper-
alton on the railroads. If you are read
ing and desire a better light, you drop
a penny in a slot and a little electric
reading lamp, just above your head, i'm
mediately throws its effulgence upon
the eye firing pages and renders you
reading Easy and agreeable.
"B'r and "keow' the Watchwords
Washington Post. a-N
MANY people are unaware said Repre-
sentative Curtis of Kansas, yesterday,
that Kansas had a shibboleth in border
state times. In 1854, when the first tide of
New England settlers began to drift into
the southwest, it is related that the Mis-
soourians tied a COW at each crossing of the
Missouri river. When an emigrant arrived
at the crossing he was certain to make
some remark about the animal. If he said
| 'anuyS he NO or faro1 TO L,,% 10 H.