Mighty oaks that grow from little acorns have nothing on the inventions of J.B. Blackwell, 2200 block of Perez Street, a retired mail carrier. Here W.N. Avery operates a 3,000-pound weed burner invented by Blackwell. The giant kerosene torch is mounted on a truck and carries its own gasoline motor to furnish power and compression. Three men can manipulate it and the machine will do the work of 50 laborers, destroying a strip of weeds 12 feet wide and 20 miles long in a day. It burns 300 gallons of kerosene a day. Published in the San Antonio Light Feb. 3, 1938.