I had the
apparatus built into the house, and I had the house planned to
agree with the apparatus.
For several months after we moved into the house I had no
burglars, but I felt no fear of them in any event. I was prepared
for them.
In order not to make Sarah nervous, I explained to her that my
invention of a silver-elevator was merely a time-saving device.
From the top of the dining-room sideboard I ran upright tracks
through the ceiling to the back of the hall above, and in these I
placed a glass case, which could be run up and down the tracks
like a dumbwaiter. All our servant had to do when she had washed
the silver was to put it in the glass case, and I had attached to
the top of the case a stout steel cable which ran to the ceiling
of the hall above, over a pulley, and so to our bedroom, which
was at the front of the hall upstairs. By this means I could,
when I was in bed, pull the cable, and the glass case of silver
would rise to the second floor. Our bedroom door opened upon the
hall, and from the bed I could see the glass case; but in order
that I might be sure that the silver was there I put a small
electric light in the case and kept it burning all night.
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