The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1905-11-21
CLOCK AS WATCHMAN
NEW ALARM TIL rs CONNECT
ED WITH GRAPHoPHoNE.
A Late Invention That VIII Cause
the old-style Alarm Clocks
to Be Done Away
With.

The man who did not hear the
alarm clock" will soon be compelled to
evolve another excuse to account for
his tardiness. The failure to hear the
alarm clock is a good old story that
has served many, many midnight rev.
elers and sleep-loving gentlemen well.
1t was invented at the same time the
alarm clock of commerce came into
vogue, and it bids fair to die hard
death. But it must go The progress
of civilization has turned another page
in the clock business, and the newest
entry is machine which Gabriel might
use if he does not care to personally
blow the last trumpet.
A native of Detroit is the man who
has accomplished the thing that will
make the manufacturers of the old
style alarm clocks go into bankruptcy.
He does not pretend to disarrange the
mechanism of the old-style eight-day
clock, but he has put forward a new
machine for making the clock do duty
as 'watchman and wake the owner
thereof at the proper time. And the
inventor needs no guarantee that his
device will do what he claims, either.
1t is so simple the patent officials, who
recently granted a patent on the thing,
wonder that it has not been thought
of before. Mr.. Heinrich has simply
combined the usefulness of the clock
and the graphophone, and the wonder
| is worked. The graphophone is super
imposed, as naval constructors say, on
| the clock. A lever from the releasing
mechanism of the talking machinery
| connects with the machinery of the
! clock. The lever can be set for any
time. and the graphophone springs set
/ When the hour hand reaches the time
! indicated by the lever the springs in
the talking machine are released and
the sleeper is brought to wakefulness
by the clarion notes of any reveille
that might suit his fancy The mill
tary man would probably put on a cyl
inder on which the old Cant get 'em
! up is repeated to the end of the chap
ter; the gentleman whose social duties
Keep him out so late that an alarm
clock is necessary to bring him into
consciousness in the morning might
slide cylinder containing the lines
\ that reproduce the sinuous strains OF
Strauss waltz. Der Morgen Blatter, ?
or the disciples of the saint cf Bayreuth
might prefer to put on a record of the
bird song from ''Siegfried" and start
in the day with the twittering of the
feathered tribe as Wagner interprets
them
The possibilities of the new device
are so great that it seems to have nc
limitations. THE busy merchant might
record an appointment for a certain
hour and remind himself of his engage
ment by having the clock repeat it tC
him at the proper time; the housewife
might talk her needs into one of tn,
waxen cylinders and let the clock re
peat them for her at the hour she usu
ally starts to market. and the fathe
Of the popular daughter might injec
Tosti's "Good-By" into the inner work
ings of the timepiece, which. set a
decent hour, might suggest something
to the young men who help to swell tn
coal and gas bills. There are hundred
of little things this new-fangled alarm
apparatus will do. The whole thin
is SO simple and so compact that al
families viii no doubt get one. TIL
clock and the graphophone are entireI
separate and distinct as to operatin
mechanism. The talking machine /
i simply placed in position on top of tn
clock, and only simple alterations ar
necessary in the operating mechanism
of the latter to admit the proper work
ing of the former.