INFLATED POLICEMEN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2698, 18 September 1885, Page 2

INFLATED POLICEMEN.

The New York Times informfcwts readers that a prominent chemisTOas made a suggestion which promises to add greatly to the efficiency of the police force. He proposes to supply the. men with india-rubber waistcoats filled with hydrogen gas. A policeman thus equipped would to a certain extont triumph over the law of gravity. Light- - ened of a portion of his weight, he woulfll. be able to run with amazing his mode of progression being a series of bounds many yards in length. No runaway criminal would thus escape an officer equipped like this, while th# work of a policeman on his beat .would be. so easy that he would not be obliged to takei frequent rests against lamp; posts, or in the corners of doorways. In the case of fire a vigorous leap would take him to a balcony on the first floor; and ho 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 be so terrible that even the most desperate would not dare to face it. it is true that the appearance of a policeman so equipped might somewhat at first detract from the respect with which the ofhcers of the law should population at large, for he would stjwgly resemble a pouter pigeon on a. large scale ; but this would be got over whjen the public got accustomed to the noveltyy and the advantages of the intention are 30 g fet this alight drawback wilto hardly weigh with the authorities. . $