As curator of the National Oily Rag & Vintage Space Heater Museum, I have no choice but to take fire safety very seriously.

Despite our name, there’s a lot more under our roof than just oily rags and vintage space heaters. Did you know that we’re home to the nation’s largest collection of turkey deep-fryers? Furthermore, our new Stacks Of Old, Brittle Newspaper Wing is scheduled to open in Fall 2009. All I have to do is forget to change the batteries in our smoke alarms just once, and a priceless legacy of solvent-soaked and tinder-dry Americana could literally go up in flames.

That’s why these DuPont Self-Charging Smoke Alarms are the official smoke detectors of the NORVSHM. Since they run and charge off of the museum’s electricity, there are no batteries to remember (or forget) to change. You just screw this alarm into a ceiling light socket, screw a bulb into the socket on the alarm, and charge the alarm by turning the light on. I appreciate that kind of simplicity, especially since it would’ve been difficult to connect an extensive alarm system to the museum’s 95-year-old electrical wiring.

Ever since we installed these, I sleep so much better at night that I usually fall asleep before I’ve even finished my last cigarette. There’s just no other alarm I’d trust to protect these oily rags. We like the DuPont Self-Charging Smoke Alarm so much, we keep a whole pallet of them on hand at all times. They’re right over there, under the EXIT sign.

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