MANY INVENTIONS

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6408, 30 October 1923, Page 5

MANY INVENTIONS

INTERESTING AND AMUSING DEVICES An odd assortment of new inventions was on view recently at the rooms of the Institute of Patentees in Great Russell street, says the London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian. It shows an astounding range of ingenuity apllied to thinking out fresh dodges. Some are useful and should go well. Others are humorous, or perhaps one should say pathetic, considering the labor that has gone to them and the faith of the inventors that once the thing is taken up they will make a fortune. On the lighter side,, there is, for instance, the necktie with an elastic back, designed always to keep it in its place, or a flycatcher that is so elaborate that the most industrious fly might die of exhaustion before reaching the place where it is intended to expire. A working man has had a notion for making iron heels last longer by inserting large screws, and someone else has a clever holder which allows the cigarette to be burnt to the bottom. Here is a bicycle wheel with two inner tubes, one inflated and the other limp. If you puncture one tube you use another valve and blow up the other and'proceed on your way. There is a woman’s comb with two excrescences on it to prevent it from dropping out. There are some interesting domestic inventions, including contributions from women. One is a fryingpan divided into two sections for frying two things at once. Another is a saucepan lid with a sort of hook enabling it to be hung on the saucepan instead of getting mislaid when pouring out. One brainy idea is a fender, the top part of which lifts up and acts both as a clothes-horse and a fireguard. The apparatus .fits into a groove in the fender, and ctin be put up and down in an instant. It is intended for a working man’s kitchen, where there is not much room. Some of these things are now on the market. One of the simplest is a pudding cloth with a sort of canvas handle so that you can lift your pudding out of the water without getting scalded. People who have been annoyed by trying to pick change from a counter with gloves on may welcome a neat little tray that tips up and down on a swivel and shoots the coins into your hands. Anyone who has fallen asleep in the train and had his bag operated on by experts will be interested by an amusing electrical device. It is a powerful bell which you put in the bag. It starts ringing when a tiny insulated wedge is withdrawn. This wedge is attached to a thread which is secured to the owner’s buttonhole, sy that when the thief removes the bag he starts the alarm bell ringing. There is an electrical trousers presser which both heats and presses your trousers at the same time. There should be a future for a toy kinematograph, a cheap affair of tin which can use waste film such as can be bought for fourpenee a pound. No artificial light is required. All you do is to turn a little handle and see Charlie Chaplin. Perhaps the most priceless thing to be' seen is a pair of skates on wheels connected together, planned to give you the exact Charlie Chaplin shuffle.