New Ideas

GOODS & SERVICES

Pancake Baker. An automatic pancake baker designed to keep up with children's breakfast appetites has been developed by New York City's Polarad Electronics Corp.* A hopper at the top holds the batter, releases enough for one pancake at a time to an electrically heated griddle. When one side is done, the griddle turns over, plopping the pancake into a second griddle, which bakes the other side. Finished pancakes thus drop onto a platter continuously. Designed by Polarad's President D. Lawrence Jaffe, the pancake baker was inspired by Jaffe's family: four children who love pancakes, one wife who has trouble keeping up at breakfast.

Aluminum Village. Near Riverview, Fla., Housing Developer John Stalling offered houses of fabricated aluminum with 470 sq. ft. of living area plus porch and carport for $5,999. Aluminum panels with honeycombed insulation are bolted to a concrete slab foundation, which has sewage and water pipes already installed. Designed for retired couples on limited incomes, the little houses have electric outlets three feet above the floor, guard rails around the bathtubs, ramps at the doors. Stalling, 75 himself, is aiming at a 2,500-home village.

Helicopter Altimeter. A microwave radar altimeter that can be attached to the automatic pilot of a helicopter and keep it hovering in one place indefinitely was announced by Sylvania Electric. Developed for use in Navy rescue and antisub operations, the device will also be available to commercial helicopters.

Drive-Up Phones. Curb phones which motorists can use without leaving their cars are being installed by the Illinois Bell Telephone Co.

* No kin to Polaroid Corp., makers of lenses and the fast-selling one-minute camera (TIME, Nov. 28, 1955).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.