GOODS & SERVICES: New Ideas, Mar. 31, 1952

GOODS & SERVICES

Fragrant Jewelry. Scented synthetic pearls are being market tested in Sandefjord, Norway by Chemist Joseph Shott and Businessman Olav Edlund. The pearls, which are made from herring scales, are infused with perfume, and the scent lasts three years. Probable retail price in U.S. for a string: $1.

Ticket Printers. The New Haven railroad put into service in Manhattan’s Grand Central Station two new automatic ticket-printing machines. Made by the Burroughs Adding Machine Co., the printers can turn out 650 different tickets to 160 destinations. The printers save the railroad the cost of stocking big inventories of tickets and in a matter of minutes total up ticket sales, a job now done tediously by hand.

Scratch Catcher. General Motors Corp. showed off an electric instrument which can detect scratches as small as one millionth of an inch. The “Surfagage” can be used in machine shops and factories to record the surface roughness of an automotive piston, crankshaft, gear tooth or any other part with a machined, ground, honed or lapped surface.

Backyard Plunge. A plastic swimming pool that retails at $275 (without such essentials as drains, pumps, etc.) was put on the market last week by the Bakelite Co. The homeowner digs a 13-by-27-ft. hole 3 to 5 ft. deep and fits in the plastic liner, which holds more than 10,000 gallons of water. An inflatable bumper ($75 extra), fastened to the top of the liner, prevents water from splashing out of the pool. The pool can be emptied by either a pipe outlet system or a sump pump.