STRANGE INVENTIONS

Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1931, Page 6

STRANGE INVENTIONS

DISPLAY IN CHICAGO. . HALF-SOLES FOR UNEMPLOYED. 'SAN FAXCISCO, September 24. . a combination aeroplane drigible, resembling a dozen sausages handed together with 1 motors in the middle, above and below, .was; one of the chief attractions , for th: stares of visitors at the second international patent .exposition held in Chicago, wlleii ihvcivcbiis, doodads and thingiabobs numbering more than .32,000 Were on display. The devices were’.the creations of 28,000 men ami women . from 22 countries. The novel air machine, accord, rig to its inventor, obeys the srogan "through the. air wi.th the a r." The “sausages’! hold compressed air and are kept fillet, by the motors while in flight. For the infant there was a fancy bottle holder, and for the jobless there was a demountable half-sole tor shoes. If Dobbin is getting old and touchy, a pneumatic collar has been provided which will feel soft to his ageing neck. The “swat the fly” campaign is helped along by a double-action fly swat. The pest is caught, if the air is true, between two blades of screening. For mother’s baking there was a contrivance on display that was a decided novelty. It was a ball-bearing, freewheeling rpTjiijiig pin, which spurs on its handles tor live minutes. For the tired Morse telegraph operator-pone of the inventors provided a shorthand keyboard, lxveryi letljff is sent in dots and dashes by pressing one of a combination ot eight numbers.

The motorist who cleans his own valves cable in for a One-valve moloi, for any number ,of cylinders from four to 16." With America's winter and ice skating approaching, another device was timely, namely, a life preserver guaranteed by its inventor to prevent drowning in ice holes.