Shakeout Roundup

In August 2017, the Des Moines Golf and Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa, played host to the Solheim Cup. Clow Valve fire hydrants were installed around the club in advance of the event. The bright yellow hydrants with red accents had a Clow wordmark and a finely detailed Solheim Cup logo. The tournament pits the best professional women’s golfers from the U.S. against their European counterparts, and the Americans won the 2017 event 16½–11½.

Star Trek fans can emulate Captain Kirk with the Star Trek Communicator from the Ward Company. The Bluetooth device is manufactured with zinc diecast parts and replicates the device Captain Kirk used on the USS Enterprise. It can be paired with a phone to make actual calls or be used as a speaker.

Owned by Fred Zollner and his sister Janet, the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons began playing in the National Basketball League in 1941. The Zollners owned Zollner Foundry, which made pistons for the automotive industry. In 1949, Fred Zollner helped officiate the merger of the National Basketball League with the Basketball Association to create today's NBA. The Pistons moved to Detroit in 1957.

Invented by 15-year-old New Zealander Ayla Hutchinson, the Kindling Cracker is a two-piece cast iron tool that allows its user to split wood with a hammer or
mallet instead of an axe. The Kindling Cracker features a 12-in. circular frame, wedged blade and base plate. Larger logs are place on the blade and then hit with a blunt object to split them into smaller pieces that can be used as kindling.

Fern & Roby, Richmond, Va., a boutique design firm specializing in furniture and audio components, produced a turntable that features two hefty metal castings as the basis for its unique design. The turntable’s base, or “plinth,” is a 70-lb. iron casting that can dampen vibration and reduce resonance with its heft. On top of that, a 35-lb. cast bronze platter is expertly balanced on a single bearing to minimize friction.