A HOUSE OF INGENIOUS DEVICES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8783, 10 April 1907, Page 3

A HOUSE OF INGENIOUS DEVICES.

A citizen of Troyes, says the Daily Telegraph, constructed a house for himself which is the wonder of the town, and, it might be added, of France. Naturally, the wonder is accomplished by. means of electricity. There are electric wires to every part of the house and garden, aud such a number of ingenious contrivances that it looks as if he had almost solved the domestic servant problem. A telephone connects every part of the premises with the garden gate. As soon as a visitor rings he hears the enquiry, "Who is there?" When lie has given his name the master welcomes him through the telephone, and the gate opens, and again closes when the visitor has entered. In the vestibule, before he is aware of it, magic bruhes clean his boots, and the doors open automatically, while a mysterious voice tells him where to find the master of the house. The latter may be in his study taking a cup of tea, and the visitor has only to express a wish when a

second cup appears on the table in answer to the pressure of a. button. I Meals are served in the same way, aud come automatically from the kitchen, newspapers and letters are deposited on the drawing-room table as soon as the-" are dropped in a box near the garden gate, and most of the provisions for the kitchen are introduced in the same expeditious way. Heat and light,-of course, aro distributed at will all over the house, aud at night a guest may have warm bottles at his feet by merely pressing a button. The inventor of the magic I house lias not yet altogether dispensed with servants, but, while waiting for their entire abolition, he if constantly within earshot of the maid, the cook, and the gardener, and the übiquitous telephone transmits to him faithfully every word they say to each other, with the result that they dare not say one disparaging word about their master unless they are miles away from him.