A BURGLAR ALARM.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1289, 12 November 1896, Page 42

A BURGLAR ALARM.

It looks as if the enterprising 1 burglar is at last to be the " victim " of the ingenuity of the inventor, for Mr McDermott, of Auckland, after two years of patient study and experiment, has patented and put on the market a "Patent Electric Bui'glar Alarm/' which it is claimed, and apparently rightly so, will sound the death knell of the burgling industry. The apparatus must be seen to be understood; still the modus operandi is simplicity itself. When fitted tip the proprietor of the premises has only to turn a switch, located in some secret place known only to himself, before locking up, and there the electric guardian keeps vigil—let it be for a night or a week —never troubled by drowsiness or want of food, or any of the other weaknesses to which the human watchman is prone. The invention can be applied to door 3, windows, safes, or staircases, and any tampering with these is immediately resented by the ringing of the bell, which cannot be stopped until the person in charge arrives on the scene and puts back the switch. Another valuable feature of the alarm is that on locking- tip, say a warehouse, after the switch has been connected, if any of the doors or windows are not properly fastened, a note of warning is immediately given. To the timid housewife in a lonely suburb, whose lord is away at the club, the alarm should prove an invaluable friend, and would prove more careful than a score of domestics. An attempt to raise or lower a window, pressure on the sill of a window, a tread on stair step, or any tampering with a door or safe lock sets tho bell in motion. For warehouses or shops tho alarms are duplicated—one inside tho premises and the other outside enterprising housebreaker attempt to tamper with one the other immediately acts in sympathy with its brother in trouble. The inventor has not forgotten the little weakness of the man who arrives home from his " ofiice " early in -*:he morning, for ho has provided him with a peculiar latchkey which cuts oft the current, and thus obviates the necessity of awakening the household and unnecessary and awkward explanations. The cost of fitting up depends upon the number of connections, but the patentees, "The McDermott Burglar Alarm Company," will install the apparatus on a. rental principle, say about „L'2 per year for a private dwelling, and keep it in repair. Tins apparatus can be seen at the local office of the couip a.y in Feathe rston street.