WARNING DEVICE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 184, 5 August 1931, Page 7

WARNING DEVICE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL

WILL INDICATE ’QUAKES, LETTING PUPILS ESCAPE Education Board officials are enthusiastic about an earthquake alarm apparatus that is to be installed in the Sydenham School within the next month or two. The purpose of the device is to give Earning of an earthquake some moments before the heavy shock comes, and .so enable the children to leave their classrooms in ample time. The apparatus is called the SeismoRing Earthquake Recorder. It was invented and patented by a Christchurch man, Mr S. G. Hoskins, who resides at 172, Ollivier’s Road. Mr Hoskins has been given permission to install his patent in the Sydenham School, provided the board is not involved in any expense. If the apparatus proves successful it may be made a permanent fixture. In an Old School. “ The board has decided that the instrument shall be placed in an oldfashioned school,” said Mr G. Penlington, the board's architect, this morning. “It will probably be placed in the teachers’ room in the old brick building facing Colombo Street. Upon detecting an earthquake, I believe, the instrument gives visible warning, and it can either be made to ring a bell in the playground—or in every classroom —or else one of the teachers can give the audible signal for the children to leave the classrooms. A system could also be devised from the arrangement to give a warning in case of fire.”