New Ideas

GOODS & SERVICES

Portable Car Radio. Oldsmobile announced a new Delco all-transistor radio for its 1958 cars, which can be removed from the dashboard and played on dry cells. The 3-lb. "TransPortable" is powered by the car's electrical system when set in the dashboard.

Aluminum Pleasure Dome. The first aluminum dome auditorium in the U.S. was erected by Kaiser Aluminum Co. at Virginia Beach, Va. for a municipally owned convention center to seat 2,200. Made of 575 diamond-shaped aluminum panels bolted and sealed together, the stressed-skin aluminum shell is 145 ft. in diameter, 49 1/2 ft. high. The auditorium's cost: $360,000.

Come-Apart Boat. A small molded mahogany boat that comes apart in the middle, so the ends can be stored in a clothes closet or carried in the trunk of the family car, was put on sale by Boston's George D. O'Day Associates, Inc. The boat, built by Fairey Marine Ltd. of Britain, comes with paddles or oars. Prices: $130 for a 7-ft.-4-in. one-seater model, $145 for the 10-ft. two-seater.

Faster Copies. A small (25 by 17 by 19 in.) machine that can copy a page of microfilmed material on letter-size white paper in less than ten seconds--six to 18 times faster than any previous reprinting method--was put on sale by Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. Price: $629 for a 16-mm.-or 35-mm.-film size, $695.50 for a machine that handles both sizes.

Calendar Watch. General Time Corp. put on sale the first cheap U.S.-made calendar watch. The watch face has a date window where the numeral 3 would be, made more legible by a magnifying lens built into the watch crystal. Each day the number changes from one through 31; hand setting corrects for shorter months. Price: $10.95.

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