.New Building Bricks Are Light Enough to Float on Water
A NEW fire brick, one-third the weight of a standard brick of the same size, and light enough to float on water, is expected to revolutionize the brick industry. Robert F. Martin of Philadelphia is the inventor.
Smaller foundations will be possible in brick buildings, since the dead weight of the walls is cut in three. Handling costs will be much less.
.LATEST INVENTIONS for Household Convenience
For health and comfort in homes, this novel humidifier which throws moisture into air in form of unheated vapor is now being marketed. Electrically driven cone spouts tiny water particles upward by centrifugal force.
Equipped with long wooden handle, this new holder lifts hot pans from stove by strong alligator-like jaws.
.Paper Houses for Olympic Contestants
MORE than 3,000 young men athletes, representing over fifty nations at the Tenth Olympiad, at Los Angeles, in 1932, will be housed in two room structures built of paper composition on wooden frames. A minimum of 800 of these unusual houses is now being erected to form “Olympic Village,” which will be the home of the contestants while they are attending the ancient games.
.DOORBELL HARP
By R. J. DE CRISTOFORO
THIS doorway harp will produce a merry melody at the front entrance to your home every time someone enters or leaves. One friend remarked that it should serve as an excellent deterrent to salesmen, since its sounds would distract them long enough for you to shut the door!- Be that as it may, the harp never fails to prompt a “Who’s playing the guitar?” from visitors, and is a good ice-breaker when welcoming guests.
.Food Fakers Caught by Simple Kitchen Tests
LOW prices for commodities stimulate the business of the food faker, permitting him to sell his adulterated and “doctored” foodstuffs at prices lower than the lowest that can possibly be asked for pure articles.
However clever the faker may be, science can catch him and his spurious concoctions by very simple means; means so simple indeed that every householder may take advantage of them to protect the health and well-being of his family.
.STRUCTURE & DESIGN
Compassionate hospital design for Philadelphia
Ruthless removal of trees in Europe
The Economist’s new mews in London
How to figure inflation in construction
Skyscrapers assume new formsEditor Walter McQuade, A.I.A.
Research Associates Mary Jane Lightbown Jeanne KrauseA Hospital Designed to Comfort the Patients
The starchy, sanitary quality of the architecture of most hospitals often makes them oppressive to the sick. A warm and welcome corrective to this tendency will soon rise in Philadelphia, where a $4,200,000 hospital for the care of cancer patients has been designed deliberately to create a humane and appealing atmosphere.
.The City – Design for Living
by Lewis Mumford
The city as a purely physical fact has been subject to numerous investigations. But what is the city as a social institution? The earlier answers to these questions, in Aristotle, Plato and the Utopian writers from Sir Thomas More to Robert Owen have been on the whole more satisfactory than those of the more systematic sociologists. Most contemporary treatises on “urban sociology” in America throw no important light upon the problem.
.Ten Inventions that Make Housekeeping Easy
One of the leading electrical refrigerator companies has recently developed a rubber ice cube tray in which the water is self leveling. Heretofore the trays used for this purpose have had to be leveled separately.
An electric tie presser for home use is designed to operate from any light socket. The metal form is inserted into the tie, as shown above, and then the device is closed for a few minutes.
.ROBOT mower cuts grass within signal-wire perimeter around lawn. It automatically turns around when it hits wire. Quiet, virtually maintenance-free, battery-powered unit random cuts up to 7,000 sq. ft. on one charge; $795.
MowBot. Inc., North Tonawanda. N. Y. 14120
.What’s New For Your Home
STAINLESS-STEEL KITCHEN CONSOLE has a fluorescent light built directly above the sink which illuminates the entire sink area and eliminates shadows. An electrical outlet is located at each end of the control pedestal containing the light. The console has a built-in spray under the water faucet. When control is set for “flood” or “spray,” the spray goes automatically into action, leaving the housewife’s hands free. Also included are remote control pop-up drains, garbage disposer, vegetable basket and cutting board. Deluxe model has power unit, food mixer, blender and electric knife sharpener. Available in five models; prices range from $271 to $443. This steel sink unit is made by Elkay Mfg. Co., 2700 S. 17th Ave., Broadview, Ill.
