Popular Science Monthly 



693 



Holding the Crowd Before Your 

 Show Windows 



SINCE it is next to impossible to get all 

 the passers-by to come inside your 

 store, the next best thing is to talk to them 

 as they pass. The electric moving display 

 sign shown in the illustration below is de- 

 signed for this purpose. It has a mov- 

 ing tape across its display surface, on 

 which as much as five hundred feet of 

 reading matter can be brought to the 

 attention of the passing crowd. This 

 tape is of cloth and moves con- 

 tinuously in one direction as long as 

 the current is turned on. 



The motor which furnishes the 

 power is concealed inside the cabi- 

 net of the device, with the tape box. 

 Either direct or alternating current 

 may be used. The tape can be 

 changed as often as desired. The 

 advertisements are made as newsy 

 as possible and are interspersed 

 with appropriate witticisms. 

 Sometimes prizes are offered 

 for finding a misspelled word 

 or a word purposely omitted. 



In charge of an ingenious 

 operator this device ought to 

 keep a crowd in front of the 

 store window all day long, 

 and at night you could go 

 home and leave it still talking 

 convincingly to the passers-by, electric 

 lights, shielded and hidden by a reflector, 

 illuminating the reading matter. 



Naturally, the people who stop to watch 

 the sign will also take notice of the mer- 

 chandise on display in the window. 



Dolls That Proclaim What the 

 Fashions in Silk Shall Be 



YOU would not think that serious- 

 minded business men would have dolls 

 made just for their especial benefit. But 

 they do. However, these dolls are not for 

 purposes of amusement. Since the war the 

 fine silks from France have been diffi- 

 cult to obtain. This has put the 

 American silk manufacturers on their 

 mettle and they have been producing 

 some splendid silks which rival those 

 made in the French mills. 



Above all things a new silk must 

 lend itself to the making of 

 clothes. A silk manufac- 

 turer hit upon the happy 

 idea of dressing dolls in the 

 new fabrics to get the 

 effect which the silks would 

 produce if made up into 

 gowns. The silk is 

 woven and dyed. If it 

 has a pattern, a piece of 

 it in plain color is used 

 for the doll's dress. 

 Then the large pattern 

 is carefully drawn to 

 scale and painted on the 

 silk to be used for the 

 doll's dress. In this 

 manner the doll is made 

 to represent a fashion- 

 able lady clad in the newest silks. Although 

 the doll is only twelve inches tall the pro- 

 portions are so perfect that the silk can be 

 studied and passed upon by the examiners 

 exactly as though it were made up into a 

 woman's garment. 



A silk manufacturer's doll. 

 He does not play with her. 

 She is gowned in the latest 

 silks to try their effect 



Roller^ 



