QUAINT INVENTION

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 841, 9 December 1929, Page 11

QUAINT INVENTION

From Saturday's Late edition.

FIRES LIT FOR LAZY HOUSEHOLDERS SOME NEW DEVICES A woman’s ingenious device for lighting a kitchen fire by pulling a string from one’s bedside was seen at the International Exhibition of Inventions, opened recently at the Central Hall, Wenminster. The model shows a gibbet-1 ike wooden frame attached to a bed-po U says the London “Daily Chronicle. ** A red cord hangs by the bed and ia carried over pulleys and conducted out of the bedroom, down the stairs aad into the kitchen. 'Before the kitchen grate is a wooden pedestal like a miniature railway signal. A single mach is fixed in the top of the pedestal, the head of the match being in contact with a roughedged wheel. When the red string is pulled by thej person in bed the wheel revolves, the match ignites, the flame catches a w r hisp of paper jutting out from between the bars of the grate—and there you are. You remain in bed or dress leisurely, knowing that the kitchen fire has well and truly lighted and that the kettle is obligingly coming to the boil in readiness for the early morning cup of tea. Or, as the inventor sta.es, “thus a fire will be burning bright iy by the time the riser i 3 dressed.” Car to Hoot at Thieves One invention is for preventing gas explosions in collieries and street?. It has received the approval of the Ministry of Mines. Another exhibit is a miner’s safety lamp which shows a J red light when gas is present. A gas sentinel for use in street manholes will: 41 > Signal the presence of gas. (2> Reset itself for further “gas at- ; tacks.” (3) Work for months without attenj lion. (4) Cuts off the supply of electricity in danger zones. Motorists will find many devices to please them, including illuminated road signs which can be read (night or day at 100yds distance*; amidazzle designs; and an anti-thief apparatus. This latter enables the driver of the car to cut off and lock up the petrol supply, and put the selfstarter out of action. Any t impering starts an electric hooter!