Monday, Apr. 13, 1959

New Ideas

GOODS & SERVICES

Auto-Trip Insurance. To give motorists trip insurance as convenient as airline flight insurance, Charlotte, N.C. Businessmen Walter Shapiro and Morris Speizman thought up Insuratrip, Inc. Motorists seeing an Insuratrip sign at gas stations dial a designated local agent's telephone number, buy coverage at the rate of 25-c- per $2,500 per day, up to $25,000, deposit coins in a coin box placed close to the telephone. The policy itself is mailed to the insured's beneficiary by the agent. In operation only since December, Insuratrip now does business in four eastern states, has applied for permission to operate in 30 more.

Better Carder. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed the first major improvement in cotton-carding equipment in 60 years. Offered on a royalty-free licensing basis to the cotton industry, the new 300-lb. rotary carder replaces one bulky 1,100-lb. carding flat, which now wastes 3% of cotton fibers. With virtually no waste, the new carder promises to save $40 million a year, or put another way, add 135 million lbs. of cotton annually to the mounting cotton surpluses.

Lightest Peeper. The Dage Television Division of Thompson Ramo Wooldridge Inc. has developed for military use the lightest portable television camera-transmitter yet offered for sale, the Tele-Tran. Weighing only 4 lbs. for the camera, plus twelve for a backpack transmitter, the assembly sends pictures to half a mile. Price: $12,500.

Mobile Lounge. For air travelers who would rather ride than walk those last few feet to the plane, Washington's new Chantilly Airport (completion date: 1961) plans something called "mobile departure lounges." Conceived by Architect Eero Saarinen, the lounge is a 15-ft.-by- 60.-ft. truck with upholstered seats; passengers climb aboard to wait until the plane is ready, are then hauled out to the ramp, where the lounge fastens to the plane's entrance door. Nobody has to move a muscle, though it could be dull.

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