Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1902 — HAS SCARED THE BANKERS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAS SCARED THE BANKERS.

.Chicafro Electrician Invents Apparatus that Will Melt the Strongest Safes. Bankers in Chicago and Milwaukee purport to be unettSy because of the unique invention of Julius E. Haschke,

a Chicago electrician, who has discovered a way of applying electricity to iron and steel so as to cut or burn the metal as a warm knife blade does a. hard chunk of butter. His device naturally gives guardians of public treasure a feeling of insecurity, though Mr. Hasch-

ke did not invent his carbon point—the name given to the meta) cutting device—for the purpose of opening bank safes, nor does he wish to aid or abet in any way the dark lantern fraternity. He is able, however, to cut into two pieces the thickest iron bar or steel plate. In his leisure moments the Chicago electrician experimented with a simple contrivance by which electricity is conducted through a carbon point and thus communicated to the steel plate he wishes to cut. His experiments prove that any piece of steel plate can be rendered useless for protective purposes when this peculiar electric needle is held to the surface. The Haschke apparatus is simple. A carbon of electrode is attached to a wood handle by means of a metal clamp; to this clamp a wire is fastened, the other being connected with the object to be operated upon. If a safe, the second wire is attached to a hinge or lock, as the fancy of the operator dictates. The modern building is alive with electric wires and a shrewd operator could easily find a service main and gather from it all the power needed to use his carbon point. But the contrivance can be operated from a small storage battery as

well. The eyes and face of the workman are protected against the glare and heat by a box of aluminum or sheet iron. Recently Mr. Haschke cut in two an unwieldy boiler basin to be removed from a Milwaukee building. He wore two pairs of colored spectacles, with black cloth between, but' the current caused when the carbon point was burning the steel was almost unendurable. The great boiler plate was sliced into two pqrts with no trouble. The carbon point cut the metal at the rate of a foot in five minutes. Spectators who watched the .work at a distance were almost blindedby ttr®"glare. ;

(Made In seven minutes; hole larger than man’s arm.)

J. E. HASCHKE.

HOLE IN EIGHT-INCH STEEL.