Automatic Age

10
T he A
u t o m a t ic
apparently will be some time be­
fore they are obsolete and with­
drawn from circulation. The
same conditions exist in connec­
tion with the nickel. They are
now coining a new nickel the
size of the American buffalo
nickel, but most of the nickels
in circulation were the silver
half-dimes, about half the size
of the American dime. Natur­
ally, they are too small to oper­
ate in vending machines. There
is a big field for development of
the coin-controlled business in
Canada. It may be slow 011 ac­
count of the confusion of small
coins, but it will come.
Most of us have heard of the
delightful Canadian summers
and a most fiowerly description
would not over describe them.
The delightful summer climate
attracts thousands of American
tourists, but I want to say here
that all the talk about the
Americans rushing over there
to buy booze is a lot of
“ bologney.” I saw a few places
where 4.4% beer was on tap and
did not witness a single soul in
them. In Ontario the Govern­
ment has dispensaries. I paid
two dollars for a permit and
bought a few bottles of Sau-
ternes and Sparkling Burgundy
wines, also a couple of quarts of
Canadian Club whisky.
The
wine was consumed in Canada!
So far as I observed I saw only
one other American of all the
© International Arcade Museum
A
ge
thousands there
liquor. No doubt
did, but on the
Americans went
business just as if
this side.
who bought
some others
surface the
about their
they were on
Crossing back into the States
at Ogdensburg, New York, I
visited the Thousand Islands.
There is certainly an opportun­
ity for someone to mop up with
a penny arcade, or at least a lot
of amusement machines scat­
tered around the resorts. Alex­
ander Bay is the center of the [
tourist activities and offers a
splendid location for a live op­
erator. Traveling on down to
Rochester I visited Mr. Byrne
of the Pulver Gum Company
and will describe this visit in
detail later. I also called on
M. H. Gregg of the Bat-A-Pen-
ny Corporation, who is about to »
introduce a new model baseball
machine and will have a couple
other new machines on the mar­
ket shortly. Irl LeGrange, well
known figure in the vending
machine world, is associated
with Mr. Gregg, but I did not
get to see Irl. Howard Peo of
the Peo Manufacturing Co. was
my next call. Mr. Peo makes
the money machine cabinets and
will soon have an interesting
announcement on some new ma­
chines he is about to market.
Driving to Lockport, I called
on the Ford Vending Machine
Company but Mr. Merritt, the
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