Corpun file 23606

The Evening Independent, St. Petersburg, Florida, 17 November 1920, p.2

Will Spank 'Em by Electricity.

Age-long Hand Job to Go -- Invention in Operation at High School.

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Another task that has been done by hand for centuries is on the eve of vanishing before the ever onward march of machinery.

This task is spanking, and the invention that is to eliminate it from hand labor is the electric spanker. This invention is the product of the manual training department of St. Petersburg High school, and is a notable addition to its mechanical creations that have attracted wide attention throughout the country.

The electric spanker is now being rigged up in one of the rooms of the department under the direction of T.H. Kards, in charge of manual training work at the High. It consists of a five-horse-power motor operating a short thick horizontal piston over the end of which is inserted a section of leather about three inches wide and with ends two or three inches long. Over this piston, a Chair with a partly open bottom has been fitted and held firm with bolts. In this chair the one sentenced to the spanker will be seated and the little button on the wall will be turned. The piston has 900 revolutions a minute, and as there are two ends to the leather, the result will be 1,800 electrically administered spanks per minute. It is believed that one minute will be about the proper duration for average punishment.

Last night Robert Cermack, a High pupil, volunteered to give the spanker a try-out. He didn't stay the full minute; in fact, if he hadn't been held, wouldn't have stayed five seconds. He says he's willing at any time to endorse the efficiency of the electric spanker.

The electric spanker chair will be the punishment of last resort. It has been suggested that after spanking has been administered by hand, say five times, without bringing about the desired reformation, the offender will be sent to the spanking chair and be given the 1,800.

Male members of the High faculty who have been informed of the invention have expressed their gratification that it happened after their spanking time. But all are unanimous in predicting a great future for the invention, that is, unless there is a rapid change for the better in adolescent masculinity. Probably in the near future advertising pages will flash this question; "Have you a little electric spanker in your home?"

The electric spanker is not intended for girls.