Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 89.djvu/753

 Popular Hciencr Manllih/

��Watching Dishonest Employees with the Aid of Mirrors

A NOVEL fraiid-flotcrlor invented 1)\- Henry iMullcr.ol Philadelphia, Va., enal)les tlic proprietor of a business, sealed at his desk in another room en- tirely separated from the rocjni in which his customers arc being ser\ed, not only to observe the actions of hi- ■■•'-)!..•(•.- but to have be- fore him at all times an ac- curate repro- duction of the operation of the cash register.

If a dishon- est employee fails to ring uj) the proper amount on the cash register, the proprietor in his room above can in- stantly detect the fraud. In brief, the in- vention calls for a cash reg- ister with spe- cial indicators which project upward, a mir- ror in a clock or other en- closure on the wall near the cash register, and a tube run- iMng through the floor to the proprietor's desk, upon which i.s a glass through which the reflections of the mirror on the wail of the room below are visible.

The tube arranged in the i)o:^ition shown in the accompanying illustration would not excite the suspicion of em- ployees. The indicators which mo\e U])- ward when the keys on the casii register
 * .rc depressed to show the amount pur-

liiascd are a part of the drawer. Each indicator is providcfl with a numi)er. If ten cents is deposited the numeral ten ino\es upward to a certain angle and is reflected by the mirror on the wall.

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•' new

���The proprietor, watching trie glass on the desk before him, discovers that an employee is not ringing up the correct amount on the cash register

��739

The Inventor of the Steam Engine Was Interested in Gim- Cracks

W.\ TT was interested in a quantity r)f inventions and devices," writes 1'". W. Taussig, Prolessor of Economics in Harvard I 'ni\ersit\-. ("Inventors and Money-Maker^," The Macmillan Com- "Among liiem may be mentioned kiii'l ol (lock which, to quote Watt's own language 'is to be ranked in mechanics as riddle.-, and re- busscs are ranked in poe- try.' Other "gim -cracks" were a microm- eter ; a draw- ing machine; a copying ma- chine for let- ters, prototype of the copy- ing devices now so long in use: a ma- chine for dry- ing linen anil muslin by steam ; one for gelling illum- inating gas from coal; a new kind of oil lamp long manufactured at the Soho Works; and a s Ml oke-con - suming de\'ice, on the down- draft principle. Last, but not least significant, was a machine for copy- ing (reproflucing) sculpturt-. which he himself termed a 'hoLb\ -horse,' and which seems to have amused and indee<l absorlted him for ihe last twenty years of liis life (from I7<)I to iSio). Long after he was prosperous and honored, the old man spent much timr in his garret, hot or cold, over this machine; he was sure il wf»uld succeed. He spoke of it as the 'diminishing madiine.' The gar- ret in which he worked at it was long preserved by his descendants."

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