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Official development blog for the PARANOIA roleplaying game. No description is available at your security clearance. The Computer is your friend.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Fire alarm security device (1938) 

Via loyal citizen George Watson on Twitter, who remarks, "I espy the hand of R&D in this," a Failblog judgment of this helpful fire alarm security device featured in Modern Mechanix magazine, February 1938:
The sending of false fire alarms by mischievous persons may be eliminated through use of a newly developed call box. To use the device, the sender of an alarm must pass a hand through a special compartment to reach the signal dial. Once the dial has been turned, the sender's hand is locked in the compartment until released by a fireman or policeman with a key.
The joke is somewhat quenched when we learn the makers wussed out: The compartment detaches from the alarm box, so the user can escape, albeit with a bulky handcuff.

For a more effective Alpha Complexian implementation that keeps you right where the authorities can conveniently locate you (or your burned corpse), check the Experimental Security Terminal in Episode 1 of John M. Ford's classic 1985 PARANOIA mission The YELLOW Clearance Black Box Blues, reprinted in the Flashbacks hardcover mission collection.
Posted by: Allen Varney / 4:07 PM

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