New Ideas

GOODS & SERVICES

Bigger Cooler. The first 1-h.p. room air conditioner operating on ordinary 7 1/2-ampere, 115-volt house current was brought out by Fedders-Quigan Corp. Previously, models over 1/4 h.p. usually required special wiring. The new air conditioner, which can be plugged in anywhere in most homes, has 35% more cooling power than 3/4-h.p. model. Retail price: $369.95.

Polaroid Facsimile. Photographs can be taken and transmitted by radio for up to 40 miles in five minutes, using a new Army Signal Corps -- New York Times facsimile system. A Polaroid Land camera takes and prints a picture in one minute; it is then radioed back in three minutes, redeveloped and reprinted by the Polaroid process in another minute. The system is being studied by the Army for transmitting reconnaissance pictures in wartime, by the weather bureau for gathering hurricane data in peacetime, by newspapers for installation on reporters' and photographers' radio cars.

Solar Time. A new clock that gets power from light has been developed by General Time Corp. The clock, which will go on sale around Christmas, will operate for a month on 24 hours' exposure to sunlight or incandescent light. Price: around $200.

Most Portable Portable. A portable radio-phonograph (8 1/2 in. by 11 in.) was put on sale by the Rockland Precision Manufacturing Co. The transistor set requires only four ordinary flashlight batteries to operate, will play 6,000 records (45 r.p.m.) or 750 hours of radio without a battery change. Price: $79.95 for the set, $49.95 for the phonograph alone.

Plastic House. The world's first molded plastic house was opened to Disneyland Park visitors at Anaheim, Calif, by Monsanto Chemical Co. and twelve cooperating manufacturers. Intended to prove that plastic is an all-purpose material, the eggshell white house perches on a squat 16-ft.-square concrete base, with four wings cantilevered out into space. Inside are three bedrooms, a living room, family room, dining space, kitchen and two baths, with many fixtures molded into the walls and electronic aids galore ranging from a TV-type camera to see who is at the front door to pushbuttons to adjust the lavatory to a child's height. Costing $1,000,000 to plan and build, the house so far is a showcase, the company said, and no plans have yet been made to put it in production. But it estimates the house could be mass-produced for as little as $15,000.

Man-Made Mink. Manhattan's Collins & Aikman Corp. will soon put on sale a synthetic mink, which it claims looks like the real thing from a few feet away. Composed of Du Pont's Orion, Union Carbide's Dynel and other synthetics, the phony mink gets its effect by combining both long and short hairs to imitate real mink, will come in several shades. Joining the company's synthetic beaver ("Cloud No. 9") and sealskin ("Kissing Cousin"), a coat will cost less than $160.

Static-Free Synthetics. Two new processes to eliminate the static from synthetics so they will not cling to the skin and gather lint will soon be in use. A Celanese Corp. of America process coats cottonlike cellulose around each filament of fiber in its Arnel fabrics. Onyx Oil and Chemical Co. has developed a chemical compound called Aston which can be applied to all synthetics to kill the static. Clothing manufacturers will plug the fabric as "Astonized."

One-Man TV Station. A television broadcasting station so compact that one man seated at the controls can operate it, showing live action, film or slides or focusing on himself for commercials, was put on sale by Siegler Corp.'s Hallamore Division. The system is designed as well for closed-circuit use in industrial plants and for tie-in with pay-as-you-see television. Price: about $15,000.

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