April 14, 2006

Egg Assembly Line Separates Yolks From Whites (Jan, 1958)

Egg Assembly Line Separates Yolks From Whites
AMONG THINGS MACHINES CAN DO better than people are breaking eggs and separating the yolks from the whites. One machine also washes and sterilizes the shells before they are broken. The contents are dropped into separating cups and the empty shells are carried away on a conveyor. The cups carry the whites and yolks
under an ultraviolet light which makes certain bacteria appear fluorescent. The machine operator removes inedible eggs or broken yolks. Whites flow over a shallow inspection tray and into a collection pail. Yolks are separated electronically for light or dark color above a divided chute. Cups are washed before receiving another egg.

April 1, 2006

Makes Coffee as You Drive (Sep, 1953)

Makes Coffee as You Drive
The young lady is enjoying a cup of coffee made by a German gadget that clamps onto the dash and plugs into the car’s electric system. Hot water filters through powdered coffee into a cup. Cimo Sievers, NYC, distributes Paluxette.

March 31, 2006

GADGETS Can Make Your FORTUNE (Sep, 1949)

One interesting side note about this passage:

“Another man who made a highly profitable find in the food field in recent years is Leo Peters, originator of the “Pak” margarine package, made out of plastic and containing a capsule for coloring. By merely kneading the “Pak,” a housewife can give a pound of margarine the appetizing hue of butter. It took Peters a long time to put the idea across, but once it was accepted by manufacturers he began collecting royalties estimated at $1,000,000 a year.”

Why, you might ask, couldn’t they just put the dye in the margarine? Well it turns out that the dairy lobby in this country had/has some serious pull. They saw margarine as competition to butter and had many laws passed that restricted the it’s appearance, primarily making it illegal to dye it to look like butter. The last state to repeal these laws was Wisconson in 1967. In Quebec, Canada it is STILL illegal to sell yellow margarine. More information on wikipedia.

Oh, and does anyone think that machine below looks at all “human-like”?

GADGETS Can Make Your FORTUNE

By West Peterson

THIRTY-FIVE thousand inventions will be patented in the United States this year. If one of them is yours— possibly a simple gadget with universal appeal—you may reap a fortune!

Anything from a new household appliance to an improved method of food processing, from a unique use of plastics to another member of the wonder drug family can pay off huge dividends to the lucky— and skillful—discoverer. While it’s true that many inventions are now made by research teams in well-equipped laboratories, there’s still plenty of opportunity for the scientific or gadget-minded individual.

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March 29, 2006

Alternate Uses for Hot Things (Jul, 1938)

Hair Drier Becomes Sawdust Blower
Upper left-—A small electric hair drier mounted on a box standing beside a jig saw will be found useful for removing sawdust as fast as it forms.

Iron Heats Water
Above—If a curling iron is sterilized with boiling water and carefully washed, it will be found useful as an immersion heater for the sick room. Also, it will prove useful when traveling, as a means of heating water for shaving or washing. Photography fans will find the curling iron valuable for heating a small amount of water when mixing chemicals. One of the advantages of this type of heater in the laboratory is the lack of flame which constitutes a menace when certain chemicals are heated.

Sealing Wax Melted Quickly And Easily With Ordinary Hair Curler
A curling iron at maximum heat will be found suitable for melting sealing wax. If a number of letters are to be sealed, this method will speed up the work and is more convenient than using matches or candles. When finished, the wax left on the iron can be scraped off easily and quickly.

Hair Appliance Speeds Paint Drying
A small electric hair drier can be used to heat a paint drying cabinet as shown in the photograph. The “cabinet” can be nothing more than a cardboard packing box. A hole should be placed in the bottom to permit the air to circulate.

Flatiron Serves As Frying Heat Source
When an electric flatiron is inverted and placed in a holder as shown by the photograph, it becomes a good heater for the frying pan when eggs or meats are to be fried. The support can be made of wood or metal.

March 24, 2006

Stuffed Frog Makes Novel Lamp (Oct, 1934)

Stuffed Frog Makes Novel Lamp
NOVELTY taxidermy, in which mounted birds and animals are arranged in special poses to serve as useful articles, is fast becoming a fad in this country. One of the most popular subjects is the frog lamp.

A stuffed bullfrog reclines lazily against his toadstool shade, holding a tiny fish-pole. Swamp grass glued to the base makes a realistic shore line, while a bit of mirror serves as the pool.

Mounted bull-frog fishing on bank of pool under shade of giant toadstool makes attractive table lamp. Taxidermists find great demand for specimens mounted in natural settings such as this. Tiny electric light bulbs are under the shade.

March 23, 2006

Harried Secretary (Apr, 1945)

Can you imagine cooking ham, eggs, toast and coffee at your desk? I once worked with a woman who had a habit of microwaving bacon in our office, that was bad enough for me.

Eggs, Toast, Coffee
can all be made on this one compact utensil, among the first of the promised innovations awaiting the end of the war. After making ham and eggs, you can toast bread by raising the movable grill three inches above the heating unit. It’s a boon for harried secretaries.

March 21, 2006

Toaster As Presser (Apr, 1944)

Toaster As Presser
YOUR iron isn’t working? Then use that sandwich toaster to press small items such as handkerchiefs, etc.; it works surprisingly well. Cover bottom half with piece of plywood to provide flat surface.

ROMANCE Of The TIN CAN (Feb, 1937)

Interesting article on the history and development of the lowly tin can. Also, if you have not yet been introduced to the techie crack that is the National Association of Manufacturers Blog, by all means, check it out. Every Saturday they post a video tour of a different factory or manufacturing process. One of my dreams has always been to make a Factory Tour tv show (without John Ratzenberger and all the promotional sound bites). Anyway, they have an excellent video showing the entire manufacturing process for tin cans here and it is very, very cool.


ROMANCE Of The TIN CAN

CUT all the tin plate used annually to make the tin cans of America into a strip one foot wide and you can wind that strip around the earth fourteen times.

Or, to visualize it another way, take the five billion odd square feet of tin plate into which we put our fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, beer, paint, oil. candy, cheese and tobacco each year and it would be a simple matter to can the moon. You’d have the biggest cheese can ever made, and still have a lot of tin plate left over.

The vastness of tin can production has brought this familiar article into the lives of nearly every American family, for it is in this country that the greatest volume of tin cans is produced. A good year will find between eight and nine billion cans for the food racks of this country and this is the business that accounts for the major percentage of cans.

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March 15, 2006

Automatic Lard Ladling Device (Jul, 1938)


Builds Automatic Lard Ladling Device

A DISPENSING device that enables him to measure out any amount of lard in about one-fifth of the time required by the usual hand-dip method has been developed by Martin L. Jackson, a store operator in Winston-Salem, N. C. The home-built dispenser features a small handle which, when turned, ejects the lard from a special spout in the form of a thick ribbon, as shown in the photo. The “secret” of the automatic ladling unit is a rubber diaphragm and a small jack which apply a constant pressure against the supply of lard, forcing it out of the spout when the handle is slowly turned.

March 8, 2006

Cream Whipped By Expanding Gas (Jun, 1935)

Cream Whipped By Expanding Gas

AT THE push of a button, ordinary cream, subjected to a new process, can now be turned into whipping cream. The cream is first put up by the dairy in containers of automobile steel. Rendered air-tight by the elimination of oxygen, the container next receives an injection of nitrous oxide gas. As the housewife presses the button on the top of the small cask, the nitrous oxide expands, forcing out the cream under pressure and, through aeration, whips the product.

February 27, 2006

Pouring Spout for Milk Carton (Nov, 1953)

This one is very close to current milk cartons. The only difference I can see is that instead of being folded and stapled, the top of the container is heat bonded, allowing you to simply pull the sides apart instead of taring the overlap.

Pouring Spout for Milk Carton
A pouring spout for cardboard milk cartons of the type shown that will eliminate dripping and spilling, and allow the carton to be drained completely, can be made by slitting the ridge of the carton and pulling out the fold under the ridge. To re-seal the carton, simply push the flap back to its original position. On most cartons, this can be done without removing the staple, but a few have a long staple, which interferes if not removed.
W. Dyre Doughty, Tucson, Ariz.

February 24, 2006

Latest in Mechanical Household Conveniences (Mar, 1933)

Personally, I love the catsup atomizer. My only concern is that catsup is just a tad more viscous than perfume, but nah, that won’t be a problem. The hand powered hand slicer looks like a ball as well.

Latest in Mechanical Household Conveniences

Reproducing the patting motions of famous Hollywood masseurs, this new vibrator keeps milady’s complexion smooth and clear. It also has many attachments for treatment of scalp and hair, and a buffer for polishing the teeth and massaging the gums which has been scientifically designed by a leading dental authority. A modulator on the motor scientifically adjusts the intensity of the vibrations for the individual complexion.

Catsup is easy to manipulate with this new sanitary dispenser. The cap, which fits over the top of the catsup bottle, is equipped with an exhaust pipe and a bulb. When you want catsup on your eats you simply point the exhaust pipe in the general direction of the grub and squeeze the bulb, whereupon a stream of the condiment shoots forth. This method eliminates the necessity of giving the bottle a severe shaking when the juice is desired.

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