670 



Popular Science Monthly 



Don't Let Your Baby Suck the 

 Telephone Cord ! 



HELLO! Hello! Is this the com- 

 plaint department?" A woman's 

 voice, clearly in a state of great irritation, 

 judging from the rising pitch and the 

 increasing explosiveness of her utterance, 

 almost screamed these words to the com- 

 plaint clerk of the telephone company. 

 He gave an affirmative answer and, 



interrupted by queer ^ 



crackling sounds, 

 and a steady buzz, 

 the voice at the other 

 end of the line poured 

 a string of complaints 

 into his ear. 



Bitterly she com- 

 plained of the opera- 

 tor, of poor connec- 

 tions, noises in the 

 telephone and many 

 other things which, 

 to the experienced 

 clerk, clearly spelled a 

 short-circuit some- 

 where on the sub- 

 scriber's line. 



Politely he suggested to the woman to 

 examine the green cord of her telephone 

 and to inform him whether it showed a 

 dark and wet spot. 



"Yes, it does," came the answer. 

 "Baby was playing with the cord this 

 morning and took it in her mouth, sucking 

 at it for a while. Surely there can be no 

 harm in that!" 



The complaint clerk, who had heard 

 the same story many times, was callous. 

 Irate ladies who complained of the service 

 and possessed babies were as nothing 

 to him. If people did foolish things and 

 then upbraided the company, why should 

 he care? 



Placidly he informed the complain- 

 ing one that the baby, by sucking at 

 the cord, had caused a short-circuit some- 

 where in the line. The insulating fabric 

 around the wires, when thoroughly mois- 

 tened, had become a conductor of elec- 

 tricity. He advised the woman to dry 

 the spot by holding it for a while near a 

 hot iron and not to let Baby suck the 

 green cord again, unless she was willing to 

 go to the trouble of drying out the wire 

 every time Baby committed the offense. 



This shows how baby caused a short- 

 circuit in the Hne by sucking the cord 



A New Safety Lock Suitable for 

 Sewing-Machine Treadles 



PROBABLY the greatest element of 

 fatigue occasioned by running a 

 sewing machine is that of exerting a con- 

 stant foot pressure on the treadle while 

 the machine is in 

 operation. To stop 

 the machine, the op- 

 erator is forced to ele- 

 vate the sole and 

 lower the heel of her 

 foot. In case of run- 

 ning a needle into 

 the finger, the instinc- 

 tive motion is to draw 

 away, but she would 

 be forced to make the 

 reverse motion. 



Mr. Frank B. Gil- 

 breth, of Providence, 

 R. I., an efficiency 

 engineer, has intro- 

 duced a device which 

 can be advantageous- 

 ly applied to any sew- 

 ing machine where the 

 operator does not 

 have to stop the machine oftener than 

 every four minutes. To start the machine, 

 the operator simply pushes her foot down 

 on the treadle. The hooklike device 

 grasps and locks the treadle. To release 

 the lock, the operator has only to drop her 

 foot from the foot rest shown on to the 

 lever. This knocks the catch off the trea- 

 dle and stops the machine. 



This device starts and stops a sewing ma- 

 chine without causing unnecessary fatigue 



