New Products

> With an eye on the success of the automatic laundry, appliance makers have produced a dry-cleaning machine that operates on the same coin-in-the-slot, done-while-you-wait system as the automatic washer. The new machines can take an 8-lb. to 10-lb. load (for example: two skirts, three sweaters, a wool dress, a child's snowsuit, a woman's jacket and a man's jacket), dry-clean the works for $1.50 to $2. Average price for the same job at a standard dry cleaner's: $8.35. Twenty-three U.S. appliance makers (among them: Norge, Philco, Westinghouse, RCA-Whirlpool, Frigidaire) are rushing to get in on the market, have already sold some 25,000 units, at which consumers will spend more than $30 million by the end of the year.

> To get around a major drawback of the trailer (in most states, the law forbids occupancy while the car is in motion). Dodge division of Chrysler Corp. has produced the "Motor Home," which looks like something between a Greyhound bus and an oversized Volkswagen truck, makes the trailer an integral part of the car, and permits a trailer wife to cook breakfast, take a shower, or snooze, while her helpmate reels off the miles.

> Saltwater barnacles and marine growth are the bane of boat owners, particularly in the offseason, when the boat is rarely used. "Boatbath," a kind of floating "wet dock," is designed to save the owner the expense of hauling out or the chore of scrubbing the boat bottom using diving gear. Manufactured by Boatbath, Inc. and made of polyvinyl chloride, Boatbath comes in sizes ranging from 24 ft. up to 40 ft., is priced from $150 to $295. The boat is floated into the Boatbath (which, in turn, floats like a huge bathtub, with its edge at the water's surface). The open end of the Boatbath is pulled closed; pellets of calcium hypochloride (swimming-pool chlorine) are dropped in. Thus the boat is floating in a bath of chlorinated water, which inhibits the growth of both barnacles and grass. A dose of four pellets is enough to keep a 29-ft. hull growth-free for at least one month, provided that the Boatbath is not opened.

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