Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/89

 A Mechanical Telephone Operator

It will take down the number of a call or a message when you are out

��LOST calls over the telephone will be a matter of history with the anticipated adoption of a device recently invented by Charles E. Bedeaux, an efficiency engineer at Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The device is simple. It merely gives a secondary function to the clapper of the bell. It is fastened to the battery bell box and consists of a steel platform twelve inches in length, supporting a clock train, which operates a celluloid-covered cylinder by means of a spiral shaft. A large cogwheel at one end of the cylinder transmits the energy from the works. On this celluloid rests a nicely balanced pencil which is con- nected by a steel wire with a pinion suspended in jewelled sockets at either side of a metal bridge, extending from the batter>' box. The pinion, in turn, is connected with the clapper by means of a steel fork. The arrange- ment has been so well- figured that the maxi- mum amount of vibra- tion is secured on the pencil with the minimum amount of pressure on the clapper. As the bell rings the message is immediately inscribed on the celluloid.

In order to use the device the following code must be carried out:

��a clutch or it will run for a period of forty- eight hours.. It is absolute in its operation and registers the codes distinctly. Patents cover a later addition of a ribbon over the cyl- inder which will record the hour and approxi- mate minute that the call is made. Other features also cover the possibility^ of operat- ing the device in a room far from the battery box by means of electrical connections.

��^T • "fW

���Number

�Ring,

�Number

�Pings

�I 3 5 7 9

�I short

1 short I long

2 short

2 ohort I lon^; I short I long

�2

4 6 8 o

�I long

1 long I short

2 long

1 long 2 short

2 iop.j I short

��As an example of the operation : Jones calls Smith and discovers that Smith is absent. Jones immediately hangs up his receiver and then opens the line ringing back his own number. If it is 2345. he rings i long, i short i long, i long I short, and 2 short. These marks are inscribed on the cylinder and are readily discernible to Smith when he returns. The device may be shut off by means of

��Above: Onthiscelluloid- cx)vered cylinder a pencil rests which is connect- ed with the battery. It inscribes the message

At left : The maximum amount of vibration is secured on the pencil when the minimum amount of pressure is exerted on the clapper

��What One Penny Will Buy in Electrical Service

WITH the cost of living skyrocketing it is comforting to reflect upon the great purchasing power of just one cent in electricity.

On the basis of eight cents per kilowatt- hour one cent will buy electric service to light a twenty-five watt lamp for five hours, to make ten cups of coffee in an electric coffee pot; to heat milk in a nursery milk- warmer three times; to sew three hundred thousand stitches on a motor-driven sewing- machine and to boil twelve eggs in an electric hot-water cup.

Electricity is now regarded as the cheap- est heating, lighting and cooking means on the market, the cost of installation bein<T the chief expense.

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