Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/65

 Popular Science Monthly

��The Laundry Keeps Pace with the Fashions. It Irons Stockings

THIS is the day of conspicuous and elaborate hosiery. The laundering of stockings and socks has had to keep up with the fashion. Formerly it was necessary only to smooth out the wrinkles, regardless of any "shine" that might be imparted by the iron. In home laundries the queen of the washtubs often considered it un- necessary to iron the hosiery at all.

Now, however, a fine stocking can be laundered in such a way that it will look exactly as it did when new. A stocking ironer has been invented which employs forms over which the wet stockings are drawn after they have been washed «nd rinsed. The steam heat is turned on and the stockings are dried and ironed at the same time from the heat inside the forms. In this way the original shape and luster of the stocking is retained and any embroid- ered design is brought out in relief.

The ironer is intended principally for use in large laundries having steam power, although it can be adapted for the home laundry. The forms are of all shapes and sizes. They prevent shrinking of all-wool stockings, also.

��Forms on which stockings may be dried and ironed like new at the same time by steam heat

���Raising the window pushes in the button, closing the alarm circuit

���An Alarming Alarm for the Burglar. He Could Never Turn It Off

AN entirely new burglar alarm which prevents a burglar from opening your window stealthily at night has been patented by William Connoly, of New York. Once the window is started upward, the noise of the alarm will upset the nerves of the burglar himself.

The alarm is extremely simple. An automatically locking push-button fits into the window frame just above the lower win- dow. A flat-head bolt is screwed in back of this push-button and makes contact with the iron mounting in which it slides. The bolt and the button are normally pushed in their outer- most position by a spring inside the mounting.

Should Mr. Burglar jimmy the window, the button is pushed in as the window is being raised. Immediately the head of the bolt passes a contact finger. The bell circuit is thus closed through the bolt and the finger. Thereupon the righteously indignant land- lord reaches for his gun. The iron finger prevents the button from being brought back. So if the burglar supposes he can turn off the alarm before anyone inside hears it, he will be horribly disillusioned.

Only a person familiar with this alarm can turn it off. The flat head of the bolt contains a slight notch. By turning the button in a certain position, the notch will come opposite the finger, and the bolt-head can slide through. Simple though this is, the burglar would never think of doing it; neither would he have time enough to do it if it should flash across his mind; for there is nothing faint- hearted about the alarm. Its evident intention is to arouse not only the mem- bers of the house- hold but the police- man on the beat and all the neighbors on the block or in the vicinity.

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