NEW TROLLEY POLE PATENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXXX, Issue 5, 6 July 1910, Page 3

NEW TROLLEY POLE PATENT.

A CHRISTCHURCH INVENTION. [BT TELEGBAF* — SPECIAL TO THE POST.] CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A mechanical device designed to obviate injury to property and not infrequently loss of human life, caused by electric trolley poles leaving the "live wire," has been invented by Mr. A. R. Christian, a pattern maker by trade, resident in Christchurch. The invention has been exploited by a company of three hundred shareholders with a capital of £3000, and patented in thirteen countries, and it is now proposed to sell the rights for their respective towns to tramway boards or companies that will adopt the device. Unlike previous inventions of the kind, Mr. Christian's pattern is almost entirely automatic in its operation. At the first inspection ite main principle appears ambitious, for the inventor depends for its practical success upon an attachment that removes the pressure of the powerful spring that forces the trolley against the wire. Immediately the trolley has risen a few indies above the wire it is released from the pressure of the spring, and the pole falls back until the head is about a foot below the wire. The car conductor has only to pull upon the guide rope to bring the spring into operation again, and the trolley can then "be returned to the cable in the usual manner. The device can be fitted to both patterns of trolley poles. — those held in position by a horizontal spring and those placed on top of a standard and held by a vertical spring.TPABSS ASSOCIATION.! FACTORY RETURNS. AUCKLAND, sth July. It is that the demands of the Labour Department in connection with the annual factory returns axe likely to be considerably modified. ! THE PRiOE OF BUTTER. ! AUCKLAND, sth July. The wholesale price of butter has been quite unexpectedly reduced by Id per lb, to take effect to-morrow, • the price now bting ]s OJd per lb. It is understood that the local reduc- | tion is due to the cutting of prices on the part of vans factories and wholesale dealers, but whether this refers to the j Wellington butter war or to local conditions has not transpired. DETAILS FOR CENSUS. • AUCKLAND, sth July. "The demands being made by tho Cen,su3 Department for full details of manufacturing businesses, in connection with next year's census ar© strongly objected j to by local manufacturers as being both ! inquisitorial and cumbersome, and steps are being taken to make representations in" the matter to the department with a view to their modification.