A CLEVER INVENTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 127, 16 October 1912, Page 6

A CLEVER INVENTION.

LATEST IX FIRE ALARMS. Christchurch, October 12. The latest thing in Are alarms—a clever invention of Mr. M. Molonel, mechanician to the Telegraph Department in Christchurch—is on view here. It consists of a simple apparatus known as a thermostat, which can be affixed to the wall of a room. A brass rod, a yard or more in length, encloses a slender steel rod, connected with the outer rod at one end only. A sudden rise in temperature causes the brass rod to expand, the inner rod is drawn back by its fixed end, and a lever (enclosed ir. an aluminium case) is released, which falls upon a couple of copper contacts, setting up an electric current. A bell at once rings in the same building, and an indicator on a board designates tue floor irom which the alarm comes. At the same time a bell at the fire station can be made to ring, and a telegraphic apparatus registers the locality of the kouse and the f\oor where'-the outbreak, has taken place. The action of the thermostat is extremely rapid. A lighted match held below the rod of the apparatus suffices to give Jin alarm, and if the heat continues for over six seconds or so a complete alarm is given. The thermostat is self-compensating; in other words, ordinary fluctuations of temperature do not affect it—it is sensitive to heat only.