AN AUTOMATIC EYE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 286, 3 December 1930, Page 9

AN AUTOMATIC EYE.

TO GUARD 1 SIGHT OF SCHOOL PUPILS. AN IMPORTANT DEVICE. ENSURES -ADEQUATE LIGHTING. (From a New York Correspondent.) The teacher will no longer be required to turn on the lights in his school room on dark afternoons or other periods of the day when artificial illumination may be necessary. A small automatic electrical device, developed by research engineers will do this for her. And when the electric lights are no longer required this same device will automatically turn them off again. Educational authorities recently witnessed a demonstration of this new device at the Edison school in Schenectady, and they were unanimous in acknowledging the robot as. "one of the most important developments that has come into the schools in years." The device consists of a small box, about the size of an ordinary radio receiving set. On one end is a small lens, which allows light from the outside to fall upon a photo-electric tube, ■better known as an "electric eye." This is set for a certain degree of daylight intensity and whenever the light from outside falls below this mark, the "electric eye" causes a small relay to switch on the electric lights in the school room. This box is placed near an outside window of the school room and can be easily adjusted to any degree of light intensity desired. An automatic time clock disconnects the apparatus during the hours when school is not in session, thus preventing the lights being turned on automatically at night. o "Teachers with large classes, as is now the rule in most public schools, sometimes forget to turn on the lights when artificial illumination is necessary," an official of the Edison school explained. "In some ,roome the teacher's desk may be much nearer a window than some of the seats of pupils in a far corner, and she may not realise those pupils in the far earner are perhaps, straining their eyes because of insufficient illumination. This new device will relieve the teacher of this responsibility. "Immature eyes of children may be permanently affected by the strain put upon them while \they are in the process of development. That is why I feel this device should be one of the most important that has come into the schools in years." Good illumination is of first-claes importance. Near-sightedness, eye-strain, nervousness, and other ills arc the result of inadequate and improper lighting. This same electrical device is also adaptable to operating lights in stores, apartment houses, in fact any place where there is need for close attention being paid to proper illumination.