New Ideas

GOODS & SERVICES

Robot Elevators. In Evanston, Ill.'s Washington National Insurance Co. building, Otis Elevator installed an electronically controlled elevator system which, it says, makes self-service pushbutton cars practical in busy office buildings for the first time. Only 2 1/2% more expensive to install than regular operator-run cars, the new system is controlled by an electrical brain which can regulate the elevators in busy morning hours to make a maximum of up trips and, at quitting time, to concentrate on down rides. Riders press a button to start the elevator and select their own floors. Other features: a weighing device which tells the brain when the elevator is full, sends it up ahead of schedule; doors which close with a slow but persistent nudge if anyone is standing in the way.

Plastic Dies. In Detroit, Chrysler Corp. began experimental use of plastic instead of steel dies to make truck panels. The plastic dies, roughly 75% cheaper than steel, can be used on an ordinary 1,000-ton press, weigh only one-fourth as much as steel dies, can be made in three or four weeks compared to 14 to 16 weeks for comparable steel ones.

Sinkproof Swim Suits. In Manchester, England, the I.M. Dry Raincoat Co. started making bathing suits, vests, belts, undershorts and Churchillian "siren suits" (one-piece coveralls) which it claims will support the wearer for more than 72 hours in water. The clothes are padded with inflated material enclosed in "dryvent," a close-woven, waterproof cotton which adds little to the bulk or weight of the clothes. The suits have been successfully tested on polio victims who must spend a great deal of time in the water. Price: about $1 more than ordinary suits.

Two-Way Talker. General Electric began sales of a new mobile radio-telephone for two-way talk between a supervisor's office and factory vehicles such as lift trucks. G.E. says that vehicles equipped with the new radio-telephone have proved 20% more efficient in big factories and warehouses. Cost for central transmitting point and one mobile unit: $1,000; additional units $450 each.

Kiddies' Rocket. In Hamburg, Germany, Exporter Guenther Lukas was planning to supply the U.S. Christmas market with an up-to-date but frightening toy: a footlong, six-ounce rocket, similar to the German wartime V2, that zooms off a three-foot-long launching rack at almost 90 m.p.h., shoots up 300 feet. At the top of its climb, a small parachute breaks out from the nose and lets down the rocket slowly. It can then be refilled with a charge similar to those in firework skyrockets and used again. Price in Germany, about $5.

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