INFLATED POLICEMEN.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1389, 8 September 1885, Page 3

INFLATED POLICEMEN.

The New York Times informs its readers that a prominent chemist has made a suggestion which promises to add greatly to the efficiency of the police force. lie proposes to supply the men with indiarubher 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 'ength. No runaway criminal w.-uhl possible escape an officer thus .quipped, while the work of a policeman on his'beat would be so easy that be. would not be obliged to lake frequent rests again>t lamp-posts or in the corners of doorways. In the case of tire a vigorous leap would

take him to a balcony on the fir.st floor, and he could thus enter and alarm the inmates without difficulty ; while the aspect of a body of police advancing to the charge of a mob with mighty bounds would he so terrible that even even the most desperate would not venture to face it. It is true that the appearance of a policeman so equipped might at first detract somewhat from the respect with which the officers of the law should impress the population at large, for he would strongly resemble a pouter pigeon on a large scale ; but this would be got over when the public became accustomed to the novelty, and the advantages of the invention are so great that this slight drawback will hardly weigh with the authorities.