The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-12-26
YOUR DOLLAR
By Consumers Union
ShaverS


GUS shaving squad of Is men went
into action on the new brands of elec-
trio shavers, but discovered no one
shaver which Gu can recommend for
every beard. About a third Of the
testers got best results from Williams
Roto-Shaver, while another third did
not like it at ALL One brand, Rem
ingtOn Triple Header, performed well
for the entire squad Of Is, but was
not liked best by most of them. There
fore, while GUS tests weed out a
number of poor or slow shavers, they
still leave a wide choice of Accept
able and Best Buy brands, to be Sc
lected according to the users indi-
vidual needs.
Moral: if you buy for yourself, try
before you buy. If you buy as gift,
make sure the recipient will have ex-
change privileges, and a choice of
other brands
Following is the status Of six of
the brands of shavers on which Gu
reported: Williams - union-made by
Dictograph Corp, under contract
with the United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers, CIO. Schick-about
40 workers are covered by contract
with the Int'l Assn Of Machinists,
AFL. The balance have no union con-
tract. Knapp - non-union. Rand -
non-union Sunbeam Independent
union. Gem -electric-was union made
last year; now non-unioh, says the
UERMWA.
Ice Skates
If the shoe fits, put it on, is extra
good advice when you buy ice skates.
Good fit is the first requisite for good
performance. The heel should fit
snugly, even when the laces are un-
done. The rest of the shoe should
fit like a glove, except at the toes,
which should be just roomy enough to
avoid cramping. Try on over one pair
of ordinary street socks plus one pair
Of medium-weight wool socks. More
socks will spoil the fit.
Figure skates are better adapted
for beginners than are pleasure or
hockey skates. They're closer to the
ground, give surer balance and con-
troll. You can recognize figure skates
by the blades, which are slightly
curved over the entire length and
have a saw-toothed toe.
Don't buy skates with strap over
the instep. Well-made shoes will fit
without strap.
The hardness of the skate blade is
one of the most important points of
quality Too-hard blades are brittle,
too-soft blades need repeated sharp
ening. Phrases like "alloy steel"
coil tempered" or "diamond-tested"
are just sales talk, give you no real
information. Gu determined by test
the blade hardness of IA pairs Of
skates, report on them in it's Christ
mas issue. Gu found good skates
retailing at around So. Among them
were: Nestor Johnson ($7.50); Aristo-
crat ($S.5O. Two Sears Roebuck
models-Cat. No. 1884 ($9.G4 plus
postage) and Cat. No. 1927 ($798
piuS poStdSt) were Soou Duy5 loo,
but don't buy mail-order skates unless
you're willing to return them enough
times to get proper fit.
Radios Under $50
You can get quite good tone quail
ity in some radios selling we'll under
$50, Gu found in testing the 194l
crop. This year, there are outstand-
ing values (as well as poor values)
on the market.
In buying an inexpensive radio, you
advised by GUS experts to steer clear
of gadgets such as extra bands or
push button control.
In its Christmas issue, Gu reports
on 35 brands. Among the Best Buys
are the following: Crosley 24AU
($29.95); RCA 16x2 ($19.95); Philco
Transitone PT-25 or PT-26 ($9.95).
Union-M Made Radios
Of the models tested by Gu, the
following are union-made: Crosley,
Lafayette under contract with Int'l
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers,
AFL; PhilcO, RCA under contract
with United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers, CIO.