Classic Mode

Automatic Age

Issue: 1930 December

T H E A U T O M A T IC C A L E N D A R
It is only natural to say that the close of 1930 will add another
year, or chapter to automatic history. If the annual trade convention
continues to increase in importance and influence, and also continues
to be held in February, then it may become more
convenient to mark the chapters of our history
from one convention to another. But as it now
stands the tale of 1930 progress has already been
told and the time now intervening until the con­
vention proper in February will simply be days
of getting ready. Recent inquiries have indi­
cated that occasionally some member of the trade
is called upon to make a speech, and that a sketch of automatic history
might be very fitting in any kind of speech relating to the trade. But
material for such a historical sketch is very scarce. We may presume
that those men who are gathering material for a book on automatics
will look far and wide for material to construct an accurate and com­
plete sketch of the industry up to date. Everybody will welcome such
a history. If properly written, historical studies can be made invalu­
able to any industry. But there are very few in any language or
trade who are properly qualified to delve into the story of the past
and bring its lesson forward so that all may read and profit thereby.
The fellow who writes a helpful history, even of a trade, needs to
be somewhat of a philosopher. Lots of men can gather the facts of
history into an interesting story, but only a very few can draw the
lessons that history should teach. So we could well wish for the man
who writes this history from its bebginnings would have enough of
that stuff called philosophy in him to picture the real threads of pro­
gress that have been woven down through the years. He ought to be
able to picture the mistakes and lost opportunities that have influenced
the development of the trade, too. For the bad things in the picture
may be worth more to us in the future than the things we like to brag
about.
There comes the story of personalities, too. Some of the men who
have been in this business for ten years and more could tell very in­
teresting stories. But the historian will have to interview them per­
sonally, for many of those who have been closest to the heart of de­
velopments will not write the kind of story that is needed to preserve
an interesting history. So we need a historian to get busy now while
these men are yet alive and with the instinct of a true reporter, get
their full story before it is too late.
Before trying to see just what kind of a chapter the year 1930 has
added to trade history, it might be well to look backward and see some
of the chapter headings that go distant into the bygone years. What­
ever may be the personal feelings of many concerning the influence
of chance machines at present, one of the big chapters in the early
history of the trade will be the story of these machines. And here is
© International Arcade Museum
http://www.arcade-museum.com/
December, 1930
A u t o m a t ic A ge
13
where the true historian will have a chance to show himself. By this
time the gambling machine has become a delicate subject, and yet the
lessons—good or bad—which these machines have had for the trade
need to be carefully written for our benefit. The part that chance
machines have played in creating the professional operator of coin
machines has been an interesting one indeed but it would certainly
require an expert to properly balance that story. This chapter would
also require an analysis of the effects of chance machines upon public
opinion toward the industry, and what handicaps, if any, they have
placed on the development of automatic merchandising. It might be
profitable to go abroad also, and see what the German and British
automatic trades have done in an effort to solve the problem of the
chance machines from within. These and many more questions would
properly belong in a well written automatic history.
The rise and numerous increase of penny machines of every type
and description would be another interesting chapter, as would the
rise of merchandise machines in reality. Now that 1930 has brought
the question of sales methods for automatic machines so vividly to
the front, the fellow who writes our history should tackle the story
of what the pioneers in the industry have done in the way of experi­
ment in this field. Through the years the trade has kept the pro­
fessional operator to the fore as the key man of the industry. This
is an interesting fact and a good writer of history might be able to
dig up some of the pros and cons that have developed the professional
operator. The question of the best marketing methods for coin ma­
chines will be of greater interest than ever for another year at least,
and maybe at the end of 1931 the historian would have a much more
complete story to tell. But if we had the factors that have weighed
upon the course of the trade in the past, some costly experiments in
marketing might be avoided at the present.
The political story belongs in this history as a chapter, too, that is
the political strivings that have occurred within the trade itself. Right
now the strain of some of these political developments are being keen­
ly felt, as divisions in the trade keep alive rifts in the personnel of
the industry at a time when cooperation and unity is most needed.
It will be one of the hardest jobs in the world—like writing a political
history of the United States almost—to give us a true history of the
causes and effects of the political tides within our organization up
to now, if this chapter is ever written. A proper record of the facts
on this side of the story might be one of the most powerful factors in
bringing about much needed unity. But until some good historian
shows us the truth, the trade will have to go on it seems, paying the
heavy bills for strife and division within its own ranks.
© International A rcade Museum
http://www.arcade-museum.com/

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