DOMESTIC USES OF ELECTRICITY.

Waikato Times, Volume V, Issue 294, 31 March 1874, Page 2

DOMESTIC USES OF ELECTRICITY.

In days of yore the idea of teaching our little ones science in any form would have been scouted, but now all we cnn <-,-y is that no pantomime 01 fairy piece could have li tfc;r pleased a 1 juvenile audience, or drawn forth more ringing peals of childish laughter, than Mr J L. King in hn lecture at the Polytechnic on " Domestic Electricity in its Application to Home Purposes " Learning is really made easy, and daily enjoyed by an audience ranging from six td sixty years of age, more cr less. Most housekeepers know how difficult it is to awaken the drowßy domestic, but by a simple appliance a bell mmy be set going any distance from the manipulator, and kept going to all eternity if desirable, or stopped in a moment. The sybarite in his dining-TO <m or hbraiy need no longer rise to ring the bell but tlin u;h the agency of a series of ornamental knobs attached to the table, can summon his attendants from above or below with a touch of the finyer. Nervous females may go to bed in peace without fear of fire or robbers, thanks to domestic electricity. By a simple little apparatus arrange') in the wall a tire alarm is set in motion (should there be any over-heating) which makes noise enough to awaken any household. But what most amused the young folki was the assumption by the lecturer of t he character of a millionaire, who kept unbounded wealth in hit hbraiy, not under lock and key, but still in jre securely guarded by electricity. A robber enters at midnight, a bell ringa violently as the villain opens the door, and whatever he touches produces tho same result, sof tpr or louder, the very frame of a valuable picture ci ies out when molested ; the grand climax arrives when tho thief puts his hand on the cash-box, and the peal is astounding, the owner entors and sho ts the malefactor with a revolver. ''Does the clever gentleman kill a bad man everyday, Papa ?" asked a blueeyed little maiden, '' 'cos I don't like that part at all " To speak seiioualy, there can be no d mbt that when properly understood and directed, domestic electricity may be applie 1 to innumerable and useful purposes, and that Mr •7. L King has taken the right ma.1113 to ensure it application. — Grapk ic.