Novel Ice Cream Dispenser

SODA jerkers and confectioners who are called on to “dish up” ice cream cones will appreciate the labor-saving features of a new tray which holds the cones in such a manner that both hands are free for the filling operation. Aside from its time-saving aspect, the tray permits the salesman to pause in his work of filling the cones in case he is called on to serve a rush customer.

The section containing the holes which hold the cones fits over a wooden tray base, so that the device comes in two parts. Advertising copy for ice cream manufacturers can be imprinted on the holders.

Plastic Oven is the latest use of the wonder synthetic. It offers considerable advantages for the housewife, chiefly in reducing possibility of burnt steaks, roasts, cakes, etc. Model shown is British.

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A Hundred Miles of Cookies Every Day

USING complicated machines, modern bakeries turn out millions of cookies every day to satisfy the American sweet tooth.

MUCH has been said of quantity production, and in the public mind the term usually is associated with motor car assembling. But the process of continuous manufacture was in use in other industries long before the automobile achieved its remarkable popularity.

Among the interesting and romantic if not so widely advertised industries utilizing the continuous process of production is the manufacture of table dainties for everyday consumption, such as cookies and other pastries. These factories also have their miles of conveyor belts which pick up raw materials at one end of the plant, receive added ingredients as they pass certain stages, and finally emerge a completed product.

Cookies are one of the leading products of the pastry and confectionery industry. They may be said to be an American institution, in that the United States leads all other nations in their manufacture and sale.

The bulk of ingredients that go into a modern cookie plant and the number of individual articles that come out in a finished stage offer a computation in mathematics. In many cities there are factories that produce hundreds of miles of cookies every week. A production of 100,000 cookies a day requires about 125 sacks of flour, 7,000 pounds of sugar, 500 gallons of pure, fresh milk; 500 pounds of butter, 9,000 dozen eggs, 3,000 pounds of shortening and 2,400 pounds of fruits.

The huge batches of ingredients go into giant electrically driven mixing bowls armed with paddle agitators which work up the dough. When the mixture Is ready, it is cut into shape and delivered to an endless belt which carries the dough through the ovens into the shipping room.

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• He Made Sky Mapping a Big Business (Feb, 1929)
• Behind the SIGNS (Feb, 1929)

Ketchup Pump-It
MR. D. F. Bachellor of Glendale, Calif, had an extremely active mind and when a major operation confined him to a hospital bed for a long period of convalescence, he kept right on thinking. One day a visitor mentioned how much better the world would be if someone would invent a device to get ketchup from a bottle without pounding and thumping. Bachellor weighed the problem. “Why thump it when you can pump it?” he thought. There was the solution. He worked out the plans and when he left the hospital he made one pump after the other until he found the perfect answer. The first million Pump-Its have already been sold and the second are disappearing rapidly. For bringing happiness to ketchup-eaters everywhere, Mr. Bachellor will receive Mi’s $50.

Dishwasher Aids Housewife
AN ELECTRIC dishwashing machine which uses six quarts of water, cleans all the dishes in the machine in eight minutes. Taking up but little room in kitchen, the mechanism is simple enough to be operated by a child. The dishes are placed in a basket which in turn is placed in the machine. The basket is self-locking, and stationary during the washing operation, thus eliminating all chance of dish breakage. An agitator with four blades revolves around the perforated basket, forcing the water upward between and over the dishes. The water strikes the dishes at all angles, doing a thorough and sanitary job.

Cob Tongs Provide Sanitary Method for Holding Corn

These novel tongs provide a sanitary means of holding hot roasting ears. Made of stainless steel, they permit the ear to be grasped securing without the fingers touching the corn. Claws on the ends of the tongs are shaped in “fish hook” manner so that the corn cannot possibly slip.

Double-Spiral Corkscrew

DRAWING the cork from a bottle of imported wine is often a losing battle. Bottles of wine should be stored on their sides to keep the cork wet and pullable. But on the long voyage from the vineyards of Europe to your table, the cork often dries out. Then you’re likely to end up with a half cork bobbing around inside the bottle and your guests have the choice between swallowing bits of cork or straining them out with their teeth. Unic, pronounced “unique,” a new Swiss corkscrew with two right-hand screws, gets all corks out in one piece. It’s being imported by Susi Press Company, 200 Hill Street, Whitinsville, Mass. •

Washer in a Kitchen Table Needs No Storage Space
The problem of storing a full size electric washer in apartments is solved by combining it with a table that gives daily service in the kitchen. Occupying a space twenty-four by forty inches, the machine is complete with wringer and built-in rinse and wash tubs. It is finished in oven-baked white enamel and has a stainless porcelain top which is removable and hangs at the side when the washer is used. Seven and one-half pounds of dry clothes is its capacity. A pump to drain the tubs into the sink can be obtained if desired.

Radio-cooked Toast Never Tastes Burned, Even If Black
RADIO cooking is the latest stunt developed by broadcast engineers. If a hot lunch is wanted by the operators in a transmitting station, all they have to do is place their food between the electrodes of the transmitter. In a few moments it will be done to a turn. Bread may be toasted in six seconds, but steak and potatoes take several minutes. Oddly enough, food overdone by cooking on the radio transmitter does not have a burned taste. Toast can be charred black without tasting in any way different from the kind a cook would be proud to serve. Engineers are not quite sure just why this is so, but believe it is because the cooking is done by the electric discharge and the electrodes get only slightly warm.

Pastry Baked From Inside Out

PERHAPS the only pastry which bakes from the inside to the exterior is the Tree Cake produced in the pastry kitchen of a Chicago hotel. In making the cake, the hatter mixture is poured on a revolving spit. When gas jets have baked or toasted it to a delicate brown, more batter is poured on and this in turn is browned. The process is continued until the spit takes on the shape of a tree trunk becoming more and more uneven with each additional layer.

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SERVANTS from the Laboratories

TEN pounds of clothes are washed, rinsed and damp-dried in 30 minutes by the Akka automatic washer, at right. The machine swishes soapy water through the clothes 144 times a minute. When the washer is done, a rubber lining in the lower half of the sphere hydraulically presses the clothes against the washer’s perforated top and removes 92 per cent of the soap. Then the washer rinses out the rest with cold water and, finally, squeezes water from the clothes.

Add the Cory automatic brewer, at left, to the new utensils that make the modern kitchen a pleasure. Merely put in water and coffee. The brewer does the rest, even keeping the coffee at the right temperature.

Designed to supply full-flavored coffee, the Cory AC-DC electric grinder, at right, holds a pound of beans. At the turn of a switch, it delivers any type of grind and any amount desired in a measuring cup.

Exactly as radar is directed at an airplane, so energy is beamed from a magnetron tube to food being cooked in the radically new Radarange above. The cooker prepares a hot dog in eight seconds, a six-pound roast in two minutes, gingerbread and biscuits in 29 seconds. The explanation is that the beam heats the interior of the food as quickly as it does the surface. Meats cooked by it emerge gray; baked goods, crustless. Inset at right shows a food container about to be placed in the range. Produced by the Raytheon Mfg. Co., Radarange will not be available for home use for some time, since the firm is concentrating on supplying commercial food preparers with the ranges.

Motorless and fully run by normal home-water pressure, the new Kaiser dishwasher at right washes, rinses and dries a service for four in five minutes. It has only two connections, one to a hot-water source, another to a drain. In washing, eight water jets in the chamber spurt water on the dishes, spin the wire dish tray and agitate the washing solution. When finished, the lid is lifted, the tray is raised and the basket continues to spin for two minutes to dry the dishes. The cutaway view in the inset shows the aluminum machine’s three controls and its dish basket in a raised position. One control raises the basket, another regulates the flow of water, the third operates the drain.

Electric Spikes Roast Weinies

MANY weinie roasts planned in advance are dismal failures because when that day arrives it is pouring rain and the usual procedure is to call off the party. No need for that if you’ll utilize the little stunt below. You can hold your roast indoors.

All you need is two boards, a few nails and an electric light cord. Nail the 110 volt cord underneath the top board with large-headed nails. The nails should be placed between the strands of the cord for better heating effect and to hold the cord in place.

RACK FOR BOTTLED BEER

Refrigerator space is economized when this rack is used to hold bottled beer. Eleven bottles can be placed in it and then put in refrigerator without removing a shelf

Ice Straws Flavor Drink
Beverages are flavored and iced at the same time when sipped through a new-type drinking straw. The straw is designed so that when it is used, the beverage passes up through a soluble, frozen flavoring material within the body of the straw. The straws are kept on ice until time for use.

TENDERNESS OF MEAT GETS ACCURATE TEST

How tough is a piece of meat? One of the first instruments ever devised to test it accurately was recently installed at the United States Bureau of Standards, at Washington, D. C.

A metal disk mounted on a board between a blunt knife and a crank handle, and attached by chains to both, records the force needed to draw the knife through a sample of meat by turning the crank handle. The entire apparatus, which is contained on one board, can be easily moved about.

The result of the tests may be that future generations will have a much better chance of getting juicy and easy-carving meat every time they order from the butcher. Once the various factors in the life history of an animal which tend to make its meat tender are discovered, scientific experts may be able to use such information to breed animals that will be certain to pass on “tenderness” to their offspring.

Automat Now Eliminates Bartender
BAR tenders are eliminated by a new automat bar recently introduced in London. By means of a slot and dial, the customer is enabled to procure himself any drink on the list. Dialing the drink number delivers a “shot” from a spigot. At left are soft drinks, while on right are wines.

Handle on Doughnut Is Boon to Dunkers
Major hazards involved in the popular indoor sport of dunking doughnuts in hot coffee are said to be greatly reduced by the invention of a new type of “sinker” with a baked-in handle that should prove a boon to all dunking enthusiasts. Triangular in shape, the improved doughnut is fried around a wooden handle, making it far easier to maneuver in and out of a steaming draught of Java.

Automatic Food Cooker Runs by Exhaust Heat of Car

MEALS can literally be cooked on the run through the use of the automatic cooker shown in the photo above. The cooker is mounted on the rear bumper of the motor tourist’s car and an extension from the exhaust pipe connected up with it, as shown in the insert. The cooker contains a steam pressure kettle which is heated by the hot exhaust gases. An hour’s drive is quite sufficient to thoroughly cook meats and vegetables. Total weight of the unit is so slight that running qualities of the car remain quite unaffected. Motor tours are much more pleasant when one is assured of a well-prepared meal at the end of the trip.

ELEVEN-POUND MUSHROOM FOUND

A single mushroom large enough to supply a banquet has been discovered and placed on exhibition in Switzerland. The phenomenal specimen tips the scales at eleven pounds, and measures more than a foot in diameter. In the illustration above, the giant mushroom is shown being weighed, while an observer checks its size with a centimeter scale.

Wooden Knives and Forks for Polar Explorers

Making wooden tableware for use by polar explorers is a curious side line of an Oregon woodworker. From carefully selected wood, he fashions knives, forks, and spoons that will be taken along by expeditions to the arctic and antarctic. At the extremely low temperatures encountered in the polar regions, metal cutlery freezes to the hands of persons using it.

Machine Vends Roasted Coffee

When you get your coffee out of this machine, you’re sure it’s fresh—roasted right before your eyes while you wait. The Infra Roast holds 150 pounds of green coffee and dispenses it, freshly roasted, at the rate of a pound a minute. The coffee goes first into a cylinder oven (see sketch at right above). There it is roasted by heat from infrared lamps controlled by a photoelectric unit that judges when it’s done by how much radiation the beans reflect (PS, Nov. ‘46, p. 214). It next falls into a cooling chamber and then into a hopper. As needed, it is blown up and across the top where the chaff is removed. Scales then measure out an even pound into a bag.

Soup Seventy-Five Years Old Is Still Fresh in Bottle
Seventy-five years ago Pasteur, the noted French scientist, bottled some soup in his experiments to prove that germs live in the air. That soup, still in its original bottle, and still fresh and edible as the day it was sealed, is now owned by Dr. Louis La Place of Philadelphia, to whose father Pasteur presented it after the elder La Place had studied under Pasteur. The faded, yellow inscription on the container reads “Prof. La Place. Veal bouillon. Pasteur.” By his experiments Pasteur demonstrated that germs do not generate in matter which is not exposed to air.

Popcorn Stand Is a Locomotive

AN ACCURATE model of a locomotive built on a popcorn wagon is attracting considerable attention and has greatly increased the sales of a French popcorn and peanut vendor.

All locomotive parts above the wheels are ingeniously made from sheet metal. A small boiler supplies steam for the locomotive whistle, but this whistle has the characteristic squeaky note of the popcorn wagon.

Corn is popped from the cab by pushing the popper into the firebox.

Drinking Straw Pops Out When Bottle Is Opened

Don’t be surprised, when you open a bottle of your favorite soft drink, if a clean, sanitary straw pops out of the beverage. It’s the latest wrinkle in bottling and may make a fortune for its clever inventor. Inserted when the bottle is capped, the waterproof straw is closed at the top, trapping air that makes it buoyant. For use, you simply pinch the top to open it, and extend the telescoping straw so that it will be long enough to reach the bottom of the bottle.

Automatic Egg Breaker
This new separator cracks the shells of 3,600 eggs an hour, and holds them apart till the contents drain into the cups, where each is inspected. (Int. News)

A Five-Story Tin Can
Phantom view above shows how five different vegetables share the new Layer Pak tin can put out by the Larsen Co., of Green Bay, Wis. The various layers of vegetables are separated by parchment-paper walls.

Milk Bottle Taps Cream Line
A PAPER milk bottle containing a collapsible cellophane spout at the cream line has been invented in California to permit the removal of cream without disturbing the milk. To drain the cream, the spout is extended, and the liquid flows into a container. Because of the cheapness of manufacture, the bottle may be discarded after use. The inventor estimates the savings to be effected by the average family using this type of bottle at more than $2 a month.

Machine Makes Instant Ice Cream

USING a new style freezer, freshly made ice cream can be produced in 40 seconds and delivered to a waiting customer.

The ingredients of the dish, after mixing are poured into the top of the machine where they are broken into a fine spray by an atomizer rotating at the speed of 3,000 turns per minute. The spray is thrown against the cylinder wall, which is maintained at a low temperature, where it freezes instantly.

Look Before You Eat

IF you’re a shy gourmet, constantly confused and embarrassed by super-duper menus in fancy restaurants, Keene’s English Chop House in New York City is the eating spot for you. They’ve discovered a way to show you exactly what each item looks like before you order it.

How do they do it? Well, the eating place has several 35-mm plastic stereoptican viewers with built-in light sources. The waiter brings you one of these with a collection of color slides showing mouthwatering views of choice foods on the menu. Then, you make your choice—after re-checking the price, of course.

Keene’s reports that about half of their new customers are eager to make use of this “Viand Viewer.” And the famous chop house has found only one fault with the device—it makes customers impatient.

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The Miracle of ICE from HEAT

Ingenious application of simple principle of physics turns the flame of a gas jet into ice cubes in the non-mechanical refrigerator.

By ROBERT JOHN BAYER

TO THE average man there is nothing mysterious in mechanical refrigeration.

He knows that gases and vapors lose heat in expansion and that by a repeated cycle of compressions and expansions, confined gases can be cooled to an extent where they will operate as refrigerants. He knows that, in his domestic mechanical refrigerator, there is a motor and a pump which compress the refrigerant and that its repeated expansion in the coils in his box produces the cold that freezes his ice cubes and preserves his foodstuffs.

The newer principle, on which the non-mechanical artificial refrigerator operates, however, is still a mystery to most. As a matter of fact, that principle is even simpler than the one on which the mechanical refrigerator works. It is simply the obvious law of physics that heat is dissipated by evaporation. Everyone is familiar with the elementary high-school experiment in physics, by which a watch crystal, laid on a damp table, is frozen tightly to it merely by placing a little of some rapidly evaporating liquid such as ether in it. Everyone knows that blowing on a wet hand causes it to feel cool; that going out in a draft after working up a sweat produces a chill. Evaporation causes both sensations. It is by the use of that principle that the refrigerator is made to work without moving machinery of any kind. The liquid used in such a refrigerator is not ether as in the watch crystal, or water as on the hand, but ammonia. Originally, alcohol was used, but ammonia has been found better and more efficient for the purpose. Instead of a draft of air to evaporate the ammonia, the refrigerator uses a current of hydrogen, because hydrogen, being much lighter than air, is a much better evaporating material.

The Evaporating Principle

In actual operation, the non-mechanical refrigerator uses a coil within the refrigerating chamber. If such a refrigerator were to be manually operated, by pouring the refrigerating material into the opening to the coil, outside the refrigerator, and using air as an evaporator, it would look like Figure No. 1, in which the more common elements of alcohol and air are used. The continued evaporation within the coil would soon cool it to an extent where it would freeze ice cubes in the enclosed trays and keep the whole refrigerating chamber cool.

Obviously, however, to operate such a piece of equipment would be impractical. It would also be expensive, because once the evaporated alcohol had passed out of the coil it would be lost. The first step in the practical process, therefore, is to reclaim the alcohol, which is done in the commercial refrigerators by means of an absorber which washes the alcohol out of the vapor and precipitates it in a mixture of water, as in Figure 2.

It has been said, however, that hydrogen is a much more efficient gas in which to do the evaporating than air. It is not as free or inexpensive as air, however, so that a closed circuit must be provided for it. In the practical refrigerator, after the alcohol has been washed out of the mixture with water, the hydrogen is re-conveyed to the start of the circuit, as shown in Figure 3. This action is automatic, because the mixture of alcohol and hydrogen is heavier than the hydrogen alone. Hence, the mixture tends to flow down into the absorber, and the released hydrogen tends to rise again to the beginning of the circuit.

Reclaiming the Refrigerant

This elementary circuit, however, does still not provide for the re-use of the alcohol, which remains at the bottom of the absorber diluted with water. Nor does it provide for re-using the water. To take care of these important functions, the designers of the non-mechanical refrigerator have made use of the principle of the coffee percolator. The solution of alcohol and water is drawn off from the bottom of the absorber into a receptacle where heat is applied. This separates the alcohol from the water, in the form of vapor, and the pressure of the vapor raises the water to a level where it can flow back again into the absorber to perform again its function of washing the alcohol out of its mixture with hydrogen. The alcohol vapor, meanwhile, rises because of its lightness into an air-cooled condenser, from which, joining the rising hydrogen from the absorber, it flows again into the beginning of the circuit. The operation is shown in Figure 4.

Cooling the Absorber

One more piece of equipment is needed to make the non-mechanical refrigerator practical. That is a method of cooling the absorber, which becomes heated from the dissolving of the alcohol. This is provided by a cooling coil around the absorber, containing a small portion of evaporated liquid. This circulates through an air cooler provided with fins, much like the alcohol condenser. A phantom view of the entire assembly is shown in Figure 5.

It will be seen that the only outside source of energy required to keep the cycle in operation, is the heat necessary to operate the water-alcohol “percolator.” In practice, this is usually applied with a small domestic gas flame, although an electrical heating unit may also be used. To guard against continuous operation of the refrigerator, which would soon freeze all the food in the refrigerator into solid icy masses, a thermostat control is provided. The bulb of this is placed near the refrigerating coils and the tube runs down to an expanding diaphragm in a valve which regulates the flow of domestic gas to the burner under the “percolator.” By setting the dial of the thermostat to the desired temperature, the gas flame is constantly regulated to maintain the temperature of the cooling box within the limits of a few degrees. Accidental quenching of the flame automatically shuts off the gas supply, so that no injury or explosion may result. This is a safety feature.

While this description of the operation of the non-mechanical refrigerator is based on the use of alcohol as a refrigerant, as has been said earlier, ammonia is the liquid used. Less of it is required than alcohol, so that the assembly may be made simpler and more compact. On the other hand, because a higher pressure is required to condense ammonia, the liquid must be introduced under pressure into the circuit which is then tightly sealed at the factory. This assembly requires special tools for servicing.