th e a u t o m a t ic a g e
'Vol. 3
CHICAGO, AUGUST, 1927
No. 1
Vacation Observations
By 0 . C. Lightner
During my recent automobile
trip to Ottawa, Canada, I had
occasion to observe conditions
through a wide stretch of terri
tory. The first coin-controlled
Machine that I saw was an au
tomatic pipe organ, located in a
fine wayside stand between Chi
cago and Gary. It was a Gabel
entertainer, operated by the
Capitol Roll & Record Co. It is
built like a piano excepting at
the top there are a group of
Pipe organ reeds. It is a ten
cent play and produces some of
the finest music I ever heard
from any instrument. When I
say this, I measure my words,
because I go to grand opera
twice a week in season and that
has educated me to some extent
to good music. It may also be
news to our readers to know
that in Chicago we have the fin
est grand opera in the world,
barring none. As some of the
boys who have visited me know,
I take in grand opera one night
and a tough cabaret the next
night— rather going from the
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sublime to the ridiculous. In
fact, I like to live life fully and
get all of its experiences; but all
this is beside the point.
Proceeding into Michigan I
found the operators doing a
good business in such thriving
towns as Kalamazoo, Battle
Creek, Lansing, etc. Around
Detroit there were a lot of
money machines in operation. I
do not know that Detroit is open
because we went back of Detroit
through Mount Clements. In
crossing into Canada at Port
Huron, we found very few vend
ing machines of any type out
side of scales. The National
Novelty Company of London,
Ontario, have most of the ma
chines out, principally vending
gum. A t Ottawa L. U. Poulin,
Ltd., appears to be the leading
operator, mostly in scales. The
trouble in Canada is that they
have two pennies — one the
American size, and the other the
old Canadian penny as large as
a quarter. In fact most of the
pennies were the old ones and it
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