Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/221

 Popular Science Monthly

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��Eliminating the Waiter in the Restaurant

A DETROIT man, John F. Daschner, has a plan for eHminating the restau- rant waiter and putting in his place some- thing which doesn't talk, or hold out its two hands for tips, or spill the soup. His invention is a dumb waiter in more than one sense. The system is said to embody the luxuries of a select dining- room equipped with conveniently ar- ranged tables and comfortable seating facilities wherein pa- trons may dine with ease and privacy, receiving prompt, efficient and sani- tary" service at rea- sonable prices.

While the system eliminates the wait- er in the dining room it utilizes him as a ser\-ing department attendant, where his duties are less ardu- ous and where he is not subjected to the whims and caprices of critical patrons. No money is wasted on waiters' uniforms or dress suits, nor is there any scurrying of waiters.

The table at which you sit is the top of an elevator shaft leading to the kitch- en below. The ele- vator is operated by a cable passing over a series of pulleys to a motor-driven drum. Simply by manipulating a pushbutton in the table top the eleva- tor descends to the kitchen, where it is loaded and sent up again. A tripping finger automatically arrests the elevator at the top or bottom of the shaft.

���Check off on the menu card the dishes you want, press a button in the table-top and the dumb-waiter descends from the center of the table to the kitchen below, where the order is filled and then sent up by the same route

��We Don't Eat This Fish Because It Is Unfashionable

IT seems as if there are fashions in fish just as there are in wearing-apparel. A fish that brings in German markets nearly four times as much per pound as our fresh mackerel, and con- siderably more than haddock, is thrown away by our fisher- men because no one wants to eat it. And it is might>- good fish, too. Those who eat it praise it for its delicate flavpr. Even the English like it. Ever>" year they consume three thou- sand tons of it. Yet we will have none of it.

This fish is known as the goose-fish, angler-fish, devil- fish and monk-fish. True, its appearance is against it, but still the epicures in England and Ger- many demand it be- cause it is delicious. Analyses made by the Bureau of Fish- eries on samples show that goose-fish contains consider- ably more protein than flounder, slight- ly more than a cod, a little less than halibut, and consid- erably less than sir- loin steak. The goose - fish has an average length of three feet and is broad and flat, some- what resembling the flounder in general outline. The only way to get it, sa>*s a Philadelphia wo- man, is for the housewives to club together and demand it. At the present time fi ;hermen do not take the trouble to bring it home, but dis- card it from their nets.

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