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The Push
Push Button Machine

The constantly increasing demand for completeness in appointments of the modern private dwelling has evolved the perfection of a most ingenious piece of machinery known as the Push Button Machine. This type of machine, as its name implies, is designed for use without a regular operator in attendance, its movements being controlled by its passengers or by those who desire its service, and who in general are entirely unfamiliar with the operation of elevators. For this reason it is most essential that every detail of the apparatus be absolutely reliable, that the installation be safe beyond any degree of doubt, and that it shall be so simple that even children may be their own operators without the slightest danger.

An installation consists of an electric motor-driven winding machine, a "controller" for closing and opening the main line circuits to the motor through electro-magnetic switches, and a "floor controller" whose duty it is to properly stop the elevator car at the desired floor. The car itself is made of hardwood or ornamental iron.

In order to meet the conditions imposed upon the automatic elevator, provision must be made for the following requirements: (1) That a person may step into the car, press a button, and be carried to the floor he desires without interference from any one in the halls who may want the car. (2) That a person may call the car, provided it is not in motion or occupied, to any floor on which he happens to be. (3) That all doors in the halls must be automatically locked while the car is in motion, and only after it has stopped at a landing can that door be opened. (4) That in an emergency the pas

senger may stop the car positively at any point and at any time.

At each floor there is a button similar in appearance to the ordinary call bell and is pressed momentarily by the person wishing the car. If unoccupied, it will start from whatever point it last stopped, come to the proper floor, stop and unlock the door. All the doors except the one opposite to which the car stops are automatically locked. This is accomplished by a door lock at each floor, whose operating lever projects slightly into the hatchway. A swinging cam mounted on the car engages this lever only when the car is at rest and opposite a floor, at which time the door may be opened. When the elevator is started the cam is swung clear of all the operating levers and remains so during the car's travel up or down the shaft. It will be seen that were this cam stationary it would momentarily unlatch each door as the car passed its lock, and should any one be trying to open this particular door he would be able to do So. By the method employed, however, the danger of opening a door at a time when the car is in motion or not at the floor is entirely eliminated.

As an illustration of the safety and simplicity in operation of this type of elevator, we will assume that the car is at the ground floor and that a person wishes to ascend to the third floor.

The hall door, having been unlocked by the car, is opened, disclosing a car of a size suitable for three or four people and equipped with a light folding gate. Opening this we step in and notice a bank of buttons mounted on a brass plate, conveniently located on the side of the car. These are connected by a traveling

cable to the "controller." The buttons are lettered or numbered corresponding to the names or number of the floors, with an extra one marked "S," spaced slightly away from the others. The "S" button denotes "Stop" and will arrest the car immediately at any point in its travel, regardless of the previous pressing of any other button. Assuming that the passenger wishes to go to the third floor, he first closes the hall door, then the folding car gate and presses momentarily the button marked "3." If the door is locked and the gate securely closed, the car starts immediately, proceeds to the third floor and stops, during which time all interference from other floors is cut out. The car gate is opened and likewise the hall door when the passenger steps out, closing both after him, thus leaving the elevator ready for the next call.

Now we will assume that a person on the fifth floor desires its service. He simply presses momentarily the button at that floor and the elevator, if unoccupied, proceeds to that point. The hall doors have all been locked while the car was ascending, as has been explained, but now the fifth floor door may be opened. By so doing the elevator is again put in an inoperative condition until the passenger steps in and closes both door and car gate. He may then press a button for any floor he desires.

A feature of the "Stop" button which may not have been appreciated

For

in the foregoing explanation is its use as a means of changing the original destination of the elevator. example, a person may step in the car and press the fourth button with the intention of going to that floor, but having changed his mind or wishing to return, a pressure of the "Stop" button will immediately bring the car to rest and set all the magnets in their initial stop position, ready for another start. This has been found very convenient and is an especially appreciated feature.

The installations are well provided with automatic appliances which operate to produce an immediate stop if every part of the apparatus is not just as it should be.

A device known as a "slack cable" switch is provided which stops the car when, for any reason, the hoisting cables become slack. The operating circuits are also opened by "limit" switches, one being placed in the hatchway at each end of the travel and are engaged by a rigid angle iron cam mounted vertically along the side of the car. These switches are opened only when the car has gone from four to six inches beyond its normal limits of travel, and effect an immediate stop when operated.

The car itself is equipped with a governor and a gradually applied clamp safety to care for the free fall of the car in event of broken cables or broken or deranged machinery.

NEW YORK TEACHERS TO UNITE

New York, N. Y.-Public school teachers in this city are discussing organization and affiliation with the American Federation of Labor. President Gompers has held conferences with teachers and principals who favor this movement. Sentiment for unionization has increased because of threatened reduction of salaries and uncertainty of positions following the efforts of local politicians to control

the public schools by securing the passage of a "home rule" law by the State legislature.

MODERN HOUSEKEEPING She fills her fireless cooker

With seven kinds of grub. Turns on the suds and puts her duds Into the scrubless tub. She starts the dustless sweeper On gear keyed down to low; Powders her nose and gaily goes To see a picture show.

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Squares, Cubes, Square Roots, Cube Roots, Logarithms,
Reciprocals, Circumferences and Circular

Areas of Nos. From 1 to 50

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Sayings from the Orient

TRANSLATED BY JEAN WHITE .

It is wrong to follow the advice of an adversary, but hear it nevertheless, so that you may do the contrary. Learn silence from the braying of an ass; do not imitate him.

Do good even to the wicked. It is well to shut a dog's mouth with a bone.

Do unto others what is worthy of thyself; deal not with others as they deserve.

A hundred chapters of wisdom will seem but a jest to a fool.

The ringlets of the lovely are a chain on the feet of reason, and a snare for the bird of wisdom.

The tapering fingers of a lovely woman and her soul-deluding ear-lobes are decorations enough, without other ornament.

A vast and deep river cannot be troubled by throwing into it a stone. That man who can be vexed at an injury is yet a shallow brook.

It would equal the torments of hell to enter Paradise through the interest of a neighbor.

When thou dost speak of trouble do it with a smiling face, for openness of countenance hastens business.

An accomplished man without gallantry is like a costly winecup without a bottom. He is often lonely.

Our hearts are influenced by our actions. If we take up a pen, we want to write; if we grasp a winecup, we want to drink; if we shake dice, we want to gamble. Therefore, watch your hands.

The ancient tombs are the resting-places of many young people. Beware of reform in old age!

Committee on Industrial Relations Washington, D. C.

Not in years have the press agents of Big Business worked harder than at present to convince the workers that wage increases do not help them and that the only way to improve their condition is to work harder and live cheaper.

The National City Bank, financial arm of the Rockefeller interests, is the latest to repeat the time-worn rigmarole which proves that two times two make three. In its March letter, which has been widely quoted in the daliy press, the bank says:

"Generally speaking, wages enter into the prices of the product, and unless counter-balancing economies are introduced, a rise of wages means that the public must pay more for the goods or service, and as the public is largely composed of wage-earners, the effect is to raise the cost of living on themselves. There is no real advancement or betterment of conditions in this."

It seems a waste of time to show the humbuggery of this argument. But a lot of people who let others do their thinking for them are mud

dled by it.

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It would be a sort of attempt to lift one's self by one's boot straps. Well, there are several considerations that figure.

"In the first place, it is not clear by any means that industrial profits are not excessive. To the degree that they are, an increase in wages would be at the expense of excessive profit. In the second place, it is very probable that increased wages would result in increased productivity, on the theory that to the degree that underpaid and, therefore, undervitalized work people receive large earnings, their industrial efficiency would be enhanced.

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"Finally, the assumption of a universal, and simultaneous, rise in wages is fantastic. That is not the way industrial betterment moves. takes place from one occupation to another, and does not increase the cost to the laborer as a consumer in the same proportion as his income rises as a producer.

"The doctrine that an increase of wages would not benefit the laborer because it would add to his consumption outlays in the same measure that it adds to his income that doctrine is not accepted by economists at this day."

It was on the same occasion that Professor Hollander said:

"Any effective attack on the evil of poverty means first of all a decided revulsion of public opinion in favor of trade unionism."

Governor Carlson's latest service to the cause of industrial tyranny in Colorado is his threat to use the State militia to drive seven hundred striking smelter employes back to work at the Leadville plant of the Guggenheim smelting trust.

Remembering Ludlow, the strikers, who were unorganized immigrants,

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