Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/203

Rh Combining the Telephone Receiver and Transmitter in One Instrument

A NOVEL method for combining the receiver and transmitter of a telephone into one instrument is the invention of an enterprising woman, Rosa D. Hatch, of Memphis, Tennessee. You speak and hear out of the same device. The receiver is mounted where the transmitter is generally placed on other telephones, while the transmitter is secured directly in front of the receiver.

The receiver also differs from the ordinary in that it contains a horn large enough to throw the sound forward a distance of about twelve inches. The transmitter is directly in front of the receiver but with its rear end towards it, so that there is little chance of the speaker's voice repeating into his own receiver. When starting a conversation, a button is pressed to connect the instruments with the telephone lines; and then, by talking and listening close up to the hood which encloses the instruments, the conversation may be carried on with privacy.

In this way the operation of the telephone is made much more convenient, although the essential construction of each instrument has not been changed. A telephone with such features ought to find special favor with business men.

RECEIVER HORN

IRIS SHUTTER RECEIVER

Holding the receiver to your ears is unnecessary in this combination of telephone receiver and transmitter

The fire used to burn the garbage also heats the surrounding water pipes

A Water-Heating Garbage Burner Is Both Useful and Sanitary

A GARBAGE burner which also serves as a water-heater combines utility and sanitation. The garbage is placed in a chamber above the fire-box, the walls of which are the water pipes. This garbage burner is especially useful in the summer when fires must be kindled to heat water. The burner is provided with either a front damper-door or a base on which the damper-door is located at the side where the damper-chain is out of the way when the fuel is inserted.

The Origin of the Locomotive Whistle Is Associated with Butter and Eggs

ON a level crossing between Bagworth and Thorton in England, on May 4, 1833, there occurred an accident which gave us the locomotive whistle. Stephenson's locomotive "Samson" crashed into a cart containing fifty pounds of butter and eighty dozen eggs. Following the accident a meeting of the directors was called, at which Stephenson suggested that a whistle blown by steam be used to give warning of an approaching train.