Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-30
DEVICES TO SAVE LIFE.
Safety Invention Show Opens in
New York.
IA FooL-PRo0F ELEVATOR
An Electrical Guard Arrangement to
Prevent OPERATOR Mistakes.
SCHEME TO STOP MACHINERY
Many Interesting Contrivances to
Prevent Great Loss Of Life
Among Workingmen.
! FooL-PRo0F ELEVATOR
SCHEME TO STOP MACHINERY

NEW YORK, January 30.-With more than
800 Individual exhibitors, the first interna-
tional exposition of safety devices was OPEN
ed at the American Museum of Natural His
tory, nth street and Central Park west, yes
terday afternoon. 1t is held under the d.
rection of the American Institute of Social
Science, which hopes eventually to estab-
lish here permanent museum of safety
devices on the lines Of those which have
been maintained abroad for a number OF
years.
A number of the foreign museums, in
Guiding the large one at Berlin and those
at Vienna, Amsterdam and Paris have sent
many photographs conveying an idea OF
the way in which the safety device propa-
ganda is pushed in Europe.
Yesterdays exhibits ran all the way
from the booth Of the man who has a
freproof starch whereby ones lace win
dow curtains may be rendered immune
from casual gas flames or lighted matches
in transit to the ponderous machines OF
the big electric and machinery companies
with their improved mechanism to guard
the lives of the operatives.
Home Talent Exhibits.
One of the home talent exhibits Is g
up without calling in outside help an6
without taking chance of pitching heat
first out of the window that is to be
shaded.
A 'fool-proof" elevator lock of such me
chanlsm that the car cannot possibly bt
started so long as the door is open at
tracted good deal of attention. In thi
lock there is an electric switch, finding it.
ocf in, fhn Cd,
Connected with the switch is an electro
magnet so adjusted that when the Circuit
Is broken by opening the door the magne
releases a plunger. This in turn slides
into catch in the control wheel of tn.
car operator making 1t impossible to star
the car up or down until the door is shu
ana the magnet draws the plunger bach
again.
One of the most extensive exhibits ir
the show is that of company making a
device to regulate the speed of engines
ana by the same mechanism furnishing a
means OF stopping the engine in any man
ufacturlng establishment from dozen OF
hundred points scattered around the
plant.
To Prevent Overspeed.
The fundamental device in this instance
Is that for keeping an engine from over
speeding. Two steel rods, each bearing an
iron ball and fitted to a horizontal shaft,
are connected with the main shaft. AS the
shaft revolves. the tendency Of the iron
weights is to fly out from the center after
the fashion of an ordinary governor on
an engine. The rods, to which weights
are attached, are SO adjusted that when
certain speed is reached, the pull exerted
by the revolving weights draws a contact
plate at the end of the shaft away from
a shoulder, and breaks an electric circuit.
Meantime to the throttle of the engine has
been adjusted a sprocket chain so that. as
the engineer opens the throttle he winds I'D
weights that run over puileys near by
When the electric circuit is broken these
weights are released. and they automatical-
~ close the throttle. To guard against
Jamming it in the process a pneumatic air
cushion is arranged.
BY means of series of gears running
between the shaft in the governing device
and ehe main shaft of the engine, it is
possible to bring speed as high as 300
revolutions a minute down to matter of
100 revolutions minute in the governor,
SO that the makers assert their ability to
apply 1t to any engine. The electric but
tons scattered throughout the factory make
1t possible for any one to close the throttle
OF the engine in an instant just as it is
closed when the contact plate in the speed
governing device is pulled by the revolving
weights away from the shoulder that
makes the circuit.