The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-06-17
BARES TRICKERY
USED IN SHORT
WEIGHT RACKET
Grover Parr Tells Women
How to Detect
Errors

The dishonest miller of fairy
tales who smeared the bottom OF
his measure with molasses to which
the grain would stick, has his mod
ern counterparts, who use slightly
more fnesse in their trickery, says
Grover @. Parr, head of the city
department of weights and mea-
sursS.
Parr and four assistants ar yalu-
able aid TO the housewives who
seek TO stretch the marketing dol
lar 10 its limit. Out of his long
experience Parr has gained an in
innate knowledge of the tricks of
tradesmen, and offers a number of
helpful hints to assist the women
OF the city In detecting the short
weight measure racket.
With city market stands and
grocery stores displaying berries of
various varieties, a prevalent racket
Is the "crinped" basket racket. BY
deft manipulation Of the sides of
the eontainer, the dishonest dealer
can displace several cubic inches
from the inside of the basket, Parr
says.
Watch for "Crimp"
To obtain full measure in the
pint or quart size fruit baskets, the
housewife should see that the sides
have not been pushed in or
"crimped."
Psrr early this week confiscated
ninety-six crates of berries be-
cause the containers averaged asa
cubic inches short of the United
States standard. This occurred
through an error in manufacture,
he explained.
Boxes have been found with false
bottoms which give an outside APP
pesrance Of standard, although the
bottom really is from one-half to
an inch too shallow.
A favorite trick used on boxes
with double bottoms is to slit the
top layer Of the two strips form
ing the bottom In filling the box,
the dealer Squeezes the side to-
gether. causing the slit strip to gap
and reduce the cubic content.
Give Box a Tap
Dealers also have become adept
at "spotting" berries in box, cor
ners of which are not filled. All
that the housewife needs to do to
discover this trick is to tap the
box smartly on the counter, and
thus cause the berries to settle into
the corners.
In buying meats, vegetables or
other commodities sold by the
pound, the housewife should give
her order for one or more pounds
rather than the equivalent in
noney-and then watch the scales
10 see that the indicator shows the
proper weight. In ordering rs cents
worth of meat at 18 cents a pound
the buyer would have difficulty in
determining just what the correct
quantity should weigh.
Parr warned against buying COM
modities in indefinite measure such
90 q buNNSO VI pail l1uSAobClo gu
ing from door to door commonly
use buckets for apples, pears or
vegetables.
City manufacturers of ice take
effective precautionary measures to
insure delivery of correct amounts.
The ice, which is frozen in 300
pound cakes, is scored to guide the
driver in cutting so or rs pound
orders. In addition to this each
cake contains from 20 to IS pounds
over the 800 mark, so melting is on
the company,
Keep Eyes on Pumps
For men. Parr offers the advice
to watch the gasoline pump at the
filling station. Make sure the in
dicator points to zero to insure full
measure.
There are about 1000 gasoline
pumps in the city and over 5000
scales of the computing type COM
monty used in grocery stores. Own