Inflated Policemen.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1452, 11 September 1885, Page 4

Inflated Policemen.

The New York Times informs its readers that a prominent chemist has made a suggestion which promises to add greatly to tho efficiency of the police force. He proposes to supply the men with indiarnbber waistcoats filled with hydrogen gas. A policeman thus equipped would, to a certain extent, triumph over the law of gravity. Lightened of a portion of his weight, he would be. able to run with amazing swiftness, his mode of progression being a series of bounds many yards in length. No runaway criminal would possibly escape an officer thus equipped, while the work of a nolicemam on his beat would be so easy that he would not be obliged to take frequent r sts against lamp-posts or in the corners of doorways. Tn the case of fire a vigorous leap would take him to a balcony on the first floor, and he could thus enter and aiarm tho inmates without difficulty ; while the aspect of a body of police advaneinjr to the charge of a mob with mighty bounds wocld be so terrible that even tho most desperate would not venture to fac« ir. It is true that the appearance of a policeman so cauipped might at first detract somewhat from the respect wi'h which the officers of the law should impress the population at large, for he would strongly resemble a pouter pigeon on a large scal« ; but. this would be got over when the public became accustomed to the novelty, and the advantages of the invention are so great th;it this slight drawback will hardly weigh with the authorities.