Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/121

 Popular Science Monthly

��105

��Helping the Deaf Mute to Talk in the Dark

IX THE Court of Domestic Rela- tions, in New York City, a deaf mute couple aired their troubles recently. The man's complaint was that his wife quarreled incessantly and would not allow him any peace until darkness came and he could no longer see her fingers. When asked by the judge why he did not look in another direction, the man replied that the deaf mute's desire for conversa tion is so great that he cannot tear himself away from such communication, however unpleasant it may be. Anything is better than the silence.

Here is an invention that makes it possible for deaf mutes to talk (or quarrel) right on after the lights are out. It consists of tiny electric light bulbs fitted into small rings which fit over the fingers of the deaf mute and enable him to talk in the dark. A small battery fits across the palm of the hand and is operated by means of a push- button switch convenient to the thumb. The connections extending from the finger- rings to the battery are flexible so that the fingers may bend easily to conceal the lights not in use and to reveal them as desired.

���A Machine Which Makes Change and Keeps the Books

WHAT might be described as an auto- matic bookkeeper is a new device which combines the cash register, credit register and adding machine in compact form. As the photo- graph indicates, thert * is a series of compart- ''-"■ *

��The machine re- cords all credit, cash and other transaction s

���Each finger is fitted with a ring containing a tiny light-bulb op- erated from the battery by a push-button close to the thumb

ments set above the keyboard of the machine, each of which contains a credit customer's account. This part of the device is built on the unit system so that it can be added to as the business expands and new accounts are opened.

In a credit transaction the clerk must make a record of certain details by operat- ing the keys before the credit compartment of a customer can be unlocked. When the handle is pulled forward, this compartment is automatically locked, and a complete and permanent record is printed upon the detail strip.

Provisions are made by this device to record all credit, cash and supplementary transactions. It is said to simplify and expedite the accounting system of a re- tailer who does a credit business. The machine contains five totaling devices, steel type, ribbon and detail strip to record all business. Each clerk has a number or initial corresponding to cer- tain keys to identify him in each of his transactions.

Customers' credit accounts are also indicated by certain numbered keys; this key numlicr also serves to establish their identity. At the end of the day's bu.siness the totals shown on the five totaling devices are transformed automatically to the detail strip and a permanent record is thus obtained of each transaction.

�� �