New Ideas

GOODS & SERVICES

Data by TV. To send check signatures from main banks to branches, transmit sales records, and perform similar jobs, Thompson Products Inc.'s Dage Television Division has developed a TV system called "Datavision." Datavision sends still pictures--which remain on the receiver long enough to be read, then fade off--can transmit up to 15 miles over ordinary telephone wires ($16 a mile) instead of coaxial cable ($36 a mile). The camera (3 1/2 lbs.) and receiver will cost about $2,250, extra receivers about $625 each.

Waste Power. Sterling Drug Inc. has perfected a method to turn plant sewage water into a source of power. Sterling's method causes flameless combustion of organic waste right in the water, creates steam to turn generators; in doing so, it partially purifies the water and thus helps solve the plant's sewage-disposal problem. First user: a Norwegian pulp and paper maker, which has ordered a $3,000,000 unit. Sterling hopes U.S. pulp mills will buy the process, since each year they dump out waste with a fuel content equivalent to "millions of tons of coal."

Word-Writer. A typewriter that can clack out a whole word or phrase at the touch of a single key was announced last week by International Business Machines Corp. It has an electric memory on which the typist can set as many as 42 words and phrases that she uses frequently, e.g., "Yours very truly." The machine has a standard typewriter keyboard. By stepping on a pedal, a typist shifts the letter keys to word and phrase keys.

Short Roast. By roasting coffee for a shorter time in a new kind of roaster, Borden Co. has developed a new instant coffee that it claims tastes like the real thing. Called "Rich Roast," it sells for the same price as Borden's old instant.

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