Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1877 — Invention to Dispose of Troublesome Callers. [ARTICLE]

Invention to Dispose of Troublesome Callers.

The Baltimore American Jsays that Mr. John Kelly, the stage manager of the Academy of Music, has improvised an ingenious arrangement for keeping the stage entrance clear of loungers, who are apt to congregate in groups on the prompter’s side, fronting the passage, which to the only means of entrance and exit available without crossing the stage. The circumstance that during every performance a man is stationed at the electric apparatus to regulate the lights in the auditorium has been utilized by directing a wire from the battery to the floor of the passage, which to covered with zinc. When several persons stop in the passage, blocking it up, the man at the battery touches a knob, and instantly a lively current of electricity is communicated to the zinc, and as quick as lightning the loungers are bounced off, their ridiculous antics resembling the jerky movements of one of those wooden supplejacks that children amuse themselves with. This arrangement is found far more effective than all the large posters that could be hung up. In case of fire it would be very advantageous. Inasmuch as a number of housekeepers and ladies who receive numerous calls have had convex mirrors S laced outside of the second-story win - ows, so that they can tell who to at the door by glancing at a mirror, it would not be a bad idea to have a small electric battery connected with a strip of zinc fastened on the doorstep. By such an arrangement book-agents, soap-peddlers and hucksters could be disposed of effectually and without any annoyance.