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Show Modern Dooby Traps Do you yearn for the adventurous life of your pioneer ancestors? Does the thrill of danger appeal to you? Just look around you. You are surrounded by dangers Grandma Grand-ma never dreamed of. Like a scout moving into Indian territory, the modern mod-ern woman must have the soul of an adventurer when she enters her kitchen. She is surrounded by booby traps, the modern devices that she uses every day. She rarely understands what makes them work, but if they don't work she can always try a bobbie pin. This may do the trick 99 times, but the 100th time may mean electrocution. Her husband out in the field has a "safe" way of unclog-ging unclog-ging the cornpicker without shutting it off until the day he loses a hand. The use of modern equipment, whether it's in the kitchen, in the barn or fields, in the town dweller's back yard, or in a factory, requires skilled hands and a clear, alert mind. Most accidents with machinery are the result either of ignorance of human failure. The machine is rarely at fault. Machines, when anything is wrong, stop working. But people go right on trying when they are upset, tired, or cross. It's not so bad when you merely drop a plate, but you are just as likely to push the wrong button on the electric elec-tric ironer or hastily pull our an electrical cord with wet fingers. In the old days the farmer with horsedrawn equipment equip-ment had to take a break now and then to rest his horses. Today he can drive himself till he's ready to drop, and often of-ten does. The tractor doesn't mind. But the human body rebels, and then there's an accident. Fatigue and emotional emotion-al upsets which temporarily blind the victim are behind too many accidents. It's high time we all began to realize the special demands de-mands that modern machinery makes upon the human beings who use it. The push button age demands more of us than mere knowledge of how to push a button. We don't all have to be mechanics, but we must at least learn our own limitations in dealing with the wonderful inventions that should make our lives more happy, nor more hazardous. |