ELECTRIC “EYE-"

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 860, 2 January 1930, Page 7

ELECTRIC “EYE - "

Fading Daylight Turns on Switch TO AVOID EYESTRAIN When natural light becomes too dim for reading without straining the j eyes, a photoelectric cell, installed at j an American school, snaps the inside i lights on. The cell is contained in a 1 small box, resembling a radio set. j near a window, and connections are j made to the electric switch. The j light coming through the window is ! deflected, through a lens, upon the j cell. As long as there is sufficient intensity, the unit remains inoperative, j but as a certain carefully determined point is reached, when the light is too dim for the good of the pupils, the “eye” reacts upon an electric relay and the room lights flash on. Engineers point out that the plan is good in more than one respect. If the lights are left entirely to the teacher’s discretion, pupils in a less brilliantly illuminated portion of the room may suffer eyestrain without her knowledge, and turning the lights on too soon wastes current. According to investigators, 25 per cent, of high school graduates are afflicted with impaired vision, and 75 per cent, of this number owe their trouble to improper illumination in the schools. ELECTRIC FINGERS Somewhat like a huge flatiron in appearance, an electric unit has been introduced for restaurant and household use. It has a number of sharp fingers that pierce the meat so that the cooking will be done more thoroughly and the piece made easier to cut and chew-. The tenderer operates w-itli current from a lighting socket and is constructed to last for a long time. HOOVER’S TRIBUTE President Hoover, in a tribute to Thomas A. Edison, published in the “Electrical World,” says: “By inventing the electric lamp, Mr. Edison did vastly more than provide a new lamp. He removed an untold burden of toil from the backs of men and women for all time.” Mr. Hoover is honorary chairman of the committee of the sponsors of the Edison Pioneers, and the statement was made in connection with the fiftieth anniversary of Edison's invention of the electric light. PLATED FLATIRONS Here is good news for the housewife. Engineers have discovered that by plating the bottom of the electric flatiron with chromium, 30 per cent, less energy is required to push it across the ironing surface. Figuring this in terms of the number of these special irons to be manufactured this year it will be a saving of 20,800,000,000 footpounds of energy during the year —this is six times the amount required to drive the steamship Leviathan.

ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS Artificial flowers may come to d€ as characteristic of this age as were the wax flowers in glass cases of our grandmothers. They go from wonder to wonder and consist of any material from silk muslin to glass or mother-of-pearl, states an English writer. Recently some marvellous sprays of honesty consisted of mother-of-pearl discs, so lifelike as absolutely to be the plant. The artificial flower ranges between the exact imitation and the flower which is only suggested. Among the former there are tulips made of coloured opaque glass. They are in the pale mauve or pale pink shades, with drooping stems and perhaps one leaf kinked over at an angle and are all that is most realistic. On the other hand, the muslin flowers are clearly conventional. Arum lilies, made rather small, consist of delicate silk muslin with the edges stiffened to keep them taut. Without being realistic, they have the spirit of the flower. Flowers in white glass tend to be very complicated, and are instances of the skill of the glass-maker. The collection of artificial flowers to make up bowls and vases has become rather a pastime, and, quite apart from their conventional value, they are useful as a decoration where central heating has a bad effect on real flowers.