New Ideas

GOODS & SERVICES

Bad-Check Trap. To foil bad-check passers, a fingerprint camera was put on the market by Identity Recorder Co. of Monrovia, Calif, for use in supermarkets and other big-volume stores. The customer rests his check and ten fingertips on the boxlike (18 1/2 by 13 1/2 in.) gadget and the cashier presses a button, getting a picture of both check and fingertips. If the check bounces, the prints are turned over to police. Identity Recorders are leased at $30 a month for the first machine, $6 for each additional machine. Cost per picture (after 1.500 free exposures) : .8-c-.

Cigarette Stogie. Philadelphia's Stephano Brothers put on sale a cigar the size of a king-size cigarette. Price of pack of 20: 35-c-. Carton of ten packs costs $3.25, includes a plastic cigar holder.

Surrey Jitney. A new four-passenger convertible with three wheels was added to its U.S. line by Italy's Lambretta, the motor-scooter maker. Designed as a golf cart, estate jitney or city family's runabout, the "Surrey"' carries two in a front cab, two in a wicker rear seat with fold-back canvas roof. It has a 6-h.p. single-cylinder engine, goes 45 m.p.h., gets 75 miles per gallon. Price: $1,290.

Flying Jeep. First successful test of a military jeep-helicopter was made by Philadelphia's Piasecki Aircraft Corp., one of several companies competing for an Army order. The Piasecki craft can safely fly and hover under bridges or between buildings because its two rotors, horizontally placed front and back inside the fuselage, are completely shielded. The enclosed rotors create air columns, which are the force that actually moves the helicopter. Piasecki plans to produce a 150-m.p.h. civilian model seating four passengers.

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