AUTOMATIC WARDEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 October 1940, Page 6

AUTOMATIC WARDEN

REPORTS INCENDIARY BOMBS. One of the most remarkable instruments designed to protect British homes and businesses from air-raid dangers is the automatic “watchman,” which not only instantly reports the presence of an incendiary bomb but records the part of the premises in which it has fallen. This instrument, designed by a wellknown British firm, is the light-ray detector, and is so installed that, should an incendiary bomb penetrate the roof ■of a house, it will immediately be electrically recorded on an indicator board and the fire-fighters can get to work without delay. Incendiary bombs do not explode, and the sound made by one that has cut through info an attic may be completely lost in the noise of an air-raid. Hence the virtue of the light-ray detector. This, although the firm’s latest use for light-ray apparatus, is only one of the many appliances which, are in operation. For example, this automatic light-ray counts articles of various sizes and shapes, up to 600 a minute passingon a conveyor, stops wire being wound on a spool when the required length has been obtained, indicates variations in turbidity arising in “water hardness” treatment, guards sleep-walkers from harm and precious jewels from theft.