New Ideas

GOODS & SERVICES

Easy Money. The U.S. Post Office last week mechanized its $5 billion-a-year money-order business. To make things easier for customers, it began issuing money orders on pre-punched International Business Machines cards which can be cashed at any bank or post office. (The old forms had to be cashed at the post office to which they were addressed.)

Cotton Caravan. For cotton-spraying time in the Sudan, a British inventor has devised a camel-borne spraying machine, which he demonstrated at the International Agricultural Conference in Sussex last week. The hand-operated pump fitted with two nozzles can spray crops in desert areas where no tractor-drawn equipment can be used. A dromedary named Joan (see cut) was drafted from the Chessington Zoo for last week's demonstration.

Square Dealer. California's Friden Calculating Machine Co. has developed a mechanical calculator which, for the first time, can do such tricks as extracting the square root of a ten-digit number in nine seconds without the help of printed tables. The machine (about the size of a large typewriter) will lop many man-hours off complicated calculations needed for guided missiles, gun sights, aircraft, etc. Price: about $1,200.

Stud-Shooter. Remington Arms brought out a new portable stud-driver which uses a .32-cal. blank cartridge to "shoot" a steel stud into such tough construction materials as concrete, steel, brick and asbestos siding. (Studs are used to fasten tough surfaces together or to attach fixtures.) Lighter than most other stud-drivers (5 Ibs.), Remington's Model 450 is also faster, will drive five studs a minute. Price: $119.50.

Fruit-Meter. The University of California Engineering Department announced an electronic sorter which grades fruit according to ripeness by measuring the light reflections from the fruit. The sorter pops fruit into appropriate chutes for immediate sale or for ripening in storage. It can sort five lemons a second, does the work of four women.

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