Tuesday’s ad is entitled Vacationers’ Reunion, and the illustration was done in 1953 by Douglass Crockwell. It’s #87 in a series entitled “Home Life in America,” also known as the Beer Belongs series of ads that the United States Brewers Foundation ran from 1945 to 1956. In this ad, apparently three couples who took a vacation together are watching a film of their trip. But the title of the ad is “Vacationers’ Reunion,” suggesting that they haven’t seen each other since their holiday. And that seems odd to me. If you’re close enough friends to go on vacation with another family, wouldn’t you think they’d continue to be in close contact after the trip, too? But maybe they needed time apart after spending so much time together. We never took any vacations when I was growing up with anyone else, though my real father and his new family did; they went caravaning with a number of the same families for two weeks every year and chose a new campground each time. Still, I tend to think of a vacation as a family affair.
Archives for June 28, 2016
Patent No. 763606A: Combined Brewing Kettle, Hop-Jack Tank And Cooker
Today in 1904, US Patent 763606 A was issued, an invention of Carl F. Hettinger, for his “Combined Brewing Kettle, Hop-Jack Tank and Cooker.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to brewing-kettles used in the preparation of malt liquors, and has for its object to provide a brewing kettle which may be converted alternately into a cooker or a hop-jack tank without interfering the preparation of malt liquors.
My improved apparatus or kettle being first used as a cooker, the ingredients are the mass is then conveyed into the usual mash is treated and supplemented in the mash-tub the brewing kettle is cleaned for the reception of the wort from the mash-tub. A hop strainer is then put into position in the kettle, so that after the wort has been boiled hops may be added to the wort in the kettle and the latter be used as a hop-jack tank, as will be hereinafter fully described.
The principal object of my invention is to provide one apparatus to serve the purposes and functions of three apparatus, with bet whereby not only a material saving in the cost of installation of a brewery is gained, but also the space occupied by such apparatus may be used for other purposes or the building may be made so much smaller.
My improved combined cooker, brewing kettle, and hop-jack tank consists of a vessel, an agitator therein, a removable telescoping hop-strainer, means for removing the same, a clean-out in the bottom of said vessel, and means for heating the latter; and my invention further consists of the improvements hereinafter more fully described, and pointed out in the claims.
Patent No. 3258288A: Can Carrier
Today in 1966, US Patent 3258288 A was issued, an invention of Lawrence L. Courter, for his “Can Carrier.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to devices for carrying containers and more particularly .relates to devices for grasping a plurality of the ordinary beaded-top type of can by their tops and thus enabling them to be transported in a group.
The uses of the invention may be particularly considered with respect to beer cans, although of course cans containing other commodities may equally well be picked up and carried by my carrier. A feature of present day merchandising of beer is that not only are cans used in place of bottles, but the cans are frequently sold in units of six cans, called picnic-packs or party-packs. These units are customarily put up in paperboard containers of egg-crate construction, having a bottom and four side walls and compartment dividers, and having two opposed walls continued upward and bent inwardly to form handles. Unfortunately such unit carriers do not stack particularly well, and being made of cardboard they can not sustain exposure to dampness such as might result from refrigeration by ice or ice-water. Furthermore their bulk when empty is the same as when full, and when discarded on beaches and picnic grounds they make an unnecessary and unsightly clutter.
It is an object of my invention to provide a carrier of flat configuration which will permit the so-called picnic packs .to be stacked one on top of another.
Another object of my invention is to provide a carrier which, when stacked, is substantially flat on its upper surface except only for centering rings for positioning cans in a superimposed layer.
A further object of my invention is to provide a carrier having hooks for lifting cans and flanges cooperating with the hooks to maintain the hooks in contact with the beaded rims of the cans.
Still another object of my invent-ion is to provide a carrier of limited flexibility, capable of being snapped on with a single pressure motion to a suitably grouped number of cans, and capable of releasing one can at a time as it may be called for.
Another object of my invention is to provide a carrier which covers the minimum area of cans carried thereby and none at all below the upper ends of the cans, so that the cans are practically fully exposed for rapid refrigeration, or advertising.
A further object of my invention is to provide a plastic carrier which may be used with cold water to refrigerate cans, and which yet contains so little material that it is economically practical.
Still another object of my invention is to provide a flexible carrier having a handle so constructed and so secured to the body of the carrier that it will normally lie in the plane of the body and yet may be lifted to a carrying position, due to flexibility of the material.