(FORTUNE Magazine) – HIGH-TECH BOOMERANG Alan Adler, an inventor and lecturer in engineering at Stanford University, improved on the Frisbee five years ago by creating the Aerobie flying ring. It won a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for ''the longest throw of any inert object heavier than air'' -- 1,257 feet. Now he has made a better boomerang. The original, invented by Australian aborigines 10,000 years ago, is a slice of wood, bent in the middle, aerodynamically rounded on one side and flat on the other. Difficult to throw, it can whack the user on the head upon its return. Adler's Orbiter is a plastic triangle covered with soft rubber to make it user-friendly. Flaps on the vertexes improve the Orbiter's aerodynamics. After a little practice, with a gentle fling you can send the two-ounce invention soaring in a 100-foot circle. Adler has sold 250,000 of the $8.99 toys this year.

DOUBLE CONTAINMENT As concern about spills increases, jungles of pipe that carry toxic fluids around chemical plants and other industrial sites will have to be made safer. The U.S. already requires new underground pipes to be encased to catch leaks, and stiffer regulations are coming. This trend has pumped life into a sluggish pipemaking industry. With its Dualcast pipe system, Fibercast Co. of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, seems to have solved the tricky problems of installing one fiberglass pipe within another and achieving the fine tolerances needed at bends and joints. In older systems the outer pipe clamped on like a clamshell and had little resistance to pressure. But Dualcast outer pipes are heat-and pressure-resistant sleeves that slip over the inner tube. Safety doesn't come cheap: The double pipe costs two to four times as much as single tubing.

CURVACEOUS CAMERA The camcorder proved you don't need to clutch a box in both hands to take good pictures. But that's just the assumption on which 35-mm cameras have been * designed for generations. Now Canon has put a 35-mm camera in a camcorder- inspired curvaceous new casing. Photura incorporates a padded hand strap that enables would-be Eisenstaedts to shoot one-handed. It is built around a motorized zoom lens whose hinged cover doubles as a flash, and has plenty of modern features, such as drop-in film loading, automatic focus, and a liquid crystal display. Shutter button and zoom control are both within range of the index finger. Price: $500.

SUPER FLASHLIGHT Is it a laser beam? A Star Wars test? No. Actually it's just a hand-held flashlight, with a 12-volt battery pack attached. But what a flashlight! Maxa Beam can put out up to six million candlepower -- almost as much as those big searchlights they use at theatrical openings. It can light up a boat a mile and a half away. A very small arc lamp generates the light, and an optical mirror of pure nickel coated with rhodium, a metallic element worth $800 an ounce, focuses the beam tightly. Proprietary microprocessor controls maintain the brilliant light for several hours on one battery charge. Marketed by Peripheral Systems of Portland, Oregon, the Maxa Beam was originally designed for the U.S. Navy. Now it has gone civilian, retailing for an eye-popping $1,299. It appeals mainly to yachtsmen and fishermen but has also found other odd niches. Moviemakers use Maxa Beams as mobile stage lights. They will appear as laser weapons in Predator II, a sequel to the Arnold Schwarzenegger epic. Some SWAT teams even want to use them as stun guns, in much the same way that Jimmy Stewart used flashbulbs to blind the villain in Rear Window.