954 



Popular Science Monthly 



A Quick Creaser 



AVERY convenient article for a 

 household is apparatus for creasing 

 trousers in a jiffy. The illustration 

 shows a very light and easily operated 

 device. It is shown in operation at 

 the left. It clamps the trouser leg and 

 is electrically heated by means of two 



Trousers can be pressed 

 by electrical heat 



coils of wire, running the full length of 

 the apparatus, as shown at B, B. 

 The clamp A clasps the trouser leg. 

 Three springs as C, one at each end and 

 one at the middle, furnish the pressure; 

 D indicates the releasing handles. 



By dampening the trouser leg with a 

 wet sponge and applying this apparatus, 

 a fine crease can be obtained in a jiffy. 

 This apparatus can be applied to the 

 back of the trouser leg as well as the front. 



Making the Burglar Call the Police 



AN invention soon to be installed in 

 certain government buildings in 

 the South, to make burglars and house- 

 breakers themselves ring up the police 

 calling for their arrest, has been worked 

 out by Louis H. German, Louisville, 

 Kentucky, as the sequel to a narrow 

 escape he experienced from an intended 

 robbery. 



The system involves the automatic 

 sending of the alarm from an instrument 

 concealed in the room or building which 

 has been broken into. This instrument 

 may, for example, be a telephone con- 



cealed within a wooden cupboard. An 

 elastic cord is fastened to the receiver 

 (or other suitable alarm-sending ele- 

 ment), and to the end of this short 

 elastic cord is fastened a long wire or 

 cord that is run through eyes that are 

 fastened to the tops of doors and to 

 window frames, and its further end 

 hooked fast to the last eye in the end 

 door or window. This wire is put in 

 place by the owner or proprietor before 

 he leaves the room. The telephone 

 receiver hook is held in its place so as to 

 give the alarm when he leaves. For 

 this purpose, a cord is fastened to the 

 hook and run through a hole in the wall 

 to the outside, where it is fastened to a 

 hook or nail. 



When the proprietor opens the door, 

 the elastic band attached to the receiver 

 simply stretches without lifting the 

 receiver from the hook, as it is held in 

 place by the taut cord hooked outside 

 the wall. Once he has closed the door 

 and is outside, he proceeds to release 

 this cord from its hook, so that it will 

 slide through the wall inside. The next 

 person who undertakes to open door or 

 window will consequently stretch or 

 strain the wire or cord extending across 

 the doors so it will raise the receiver of 

 the alarm-giving telephone from its hook, 

 as it is no longer held down by the other 

 cord. 



In the daytime, the cord that protects 

 the various doors and windows may be 

 withdrawn and stored inside the cup- 



By means of this scheme every door and 

 window may be guarded 



board that conceals the alarm-sending 

 telephone, and employees and visitors 

 in the building will be unaware of the 

 existence of the automatic burglar-alarm. 



