The world haw-hawed at the silly inventors, but the inventors have made good. In England, to-day, there are showing us a machine that can hand out an insurance policy, properly stamped and signed.
The machine, which defies fraud, looks like a clock. When the applicant drops his coin into the slot he pulls forward a handle, when out drops a pencil, already sharpened, and an opening is disclosed through which the signature is made. Then the client pushes back the handle and simultaneously the space closes and an insurance policy is issued through another slot.
Against the signature inside the machine is printed the exact date and the time to the very minute when the policy was issued. If the insured meets with an accident within seven days he applies to the insurance company for his weekly allowance, and if his name is on the register retained by the machine the policy is paid.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ARITHMETICAL SIGNS.
HOW THEY FIRST CAME TO BE USED.
Prone to Short Cuts and Abbreviations,
Man Has Chopped Words Into
Lines and Crosses.
A little mark or sign, used in every-day life so frequently that its users concern themselves only with its necessary meaning, may have a very elaborate history—may embalm much tradition. Take the English sign for a pound—£. How many persons have stopped to inquire as to its meaning? £ stands for the Latin libra, as "d," used to indicate the pence, stands for the Latin denarius, and as "s," used to indicate the shilling, stands for the Latin solidus.
The origin of arithmetical signs is explained as follows:
1. The sign of addition (+) is derived from the initial letter of the word plus. In making the capital letter, it was made more and more carelessly, until the top part of the P was placed near the center; and hence the plus sign was finally reached.
2. The sign of subtraction (-) was derived from the word minus. The word was first contracted into m n s, with a horizontal line above to indicate the contraction; then the letters were omitted, which left the short line -.