91av

Only the terminally dishevelled escape the chore of ironing. For everyone else, listening to the radio can make the drudgery of heat-assisted garment flattening more bearable. That doesn’t mean combining these two old inventions—the electric iron and the radio—is patentable, but Ruben Jones of Toledo, Ohio, is going to try (WO 0209327). Jones’s iron combines “standard radio components” with the body of an electric iron and a telescopic aerial on the side. As with all pending applications, anyone who thinks they can prove the idea is not as new as claimed can send evidence to the patent office handling the application.