THE BRUNHOFF STORY
by Tom Gustwiller
Through my years of collecting, I've found two
machines made by the Brunhoff Manufacturing
Company, and I always wanted to know more about
the manufacturer. One machine was marked
Hamilton, Ohio, so I wrote to the Chamber of
Commerce. The reply said they had no records of a
Brunhoff Company being in business in Hamilton. I
also had a catalogue of cigar clippers made by
Brunhoff Mfg., this time with a Cincinnati address. I
checked with the Cincinnati Library, and they wrote
back with some interesting material on Brunhoff.
With this information I was able to contact some of
the living relatives of the Brunhoff Company. With
the information they gave me and the literature from
the library I put this story together.
he got some of his ideas for gambling devices, cigar
cutters, and cigar lighters.
In 1893, he moved to Minneapolis, staying there for
four years where he continued to make advertising
devices for the counter, showcase, bar, and desk.
Brunhoff then moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1897
staying two short years, moving on again to
Hamilton, Ohio in 1899. It was in this period from
1899 to 1901 that Brunhoff produced many of his
trade stimulators.
His first trade stimulator was
called the FIVE CIGARS (photo
2). This machine was unusual in
that it had two coin slots, one each
at the tip-top of the end cigars,
with a pull-down plain handle on
each side. Each wheel had its own slug detector win-
dow and reward card making it two machines in one.
None are known to exist.
Edward Brunhoff (photo 1) born in
1863, was a native of Germany near
the Holland boundary line. Edward
was the son of a doctor and acquired
his education in German colleges.
He tutored on ships and 1882 came
to America residing in New York
City for a short time. He visited Australia and the
Sandwich islands. On his return, landing on the
Pacific coast, he spent several years in the states of
California, Oregon, Washington and the province of
British Columbia. He worked as a fisherman on the
Columbia and Cowlitz rivers and as a surveyor for
the Canadian Pacific Railroad. After Brunhoff satis-
fied his desires for the rough and open life with its
hunting and fishing, he returned to civilization in
1888 where he located in Chicago becoming for two
years a member of the Illinois Staats Zeitung (a pri-
vate club for German men). Brunhoff became tired
of this and decided to start his own manufacturing
plant in 1890. He had considerable inventive ability
and patented file clips and also the detachable end-
less files used in practically every office. While
Brunhoff belonged to the Staats Zeitung he must
have been exposed to the Albert Pick & Co., as they
were just a few doors down. This is probably where
.--------...----------, The next machine was the
AUTOMATIC
VOTE
RECORDER AND CIGAR
SELLER (photo 3) which
also had two slots each with
its own pull down handle.
L - - - - - - - - - - - ' First you would pick out the
person you were voting for, then put a nickel in that
side of the machine. There were counters underneath
each person so you could see who was winning. In
the middle of the machine a small wheel spun, land-
ing on different numbers. The owner gave the appro-
priate number of cigars shown on the corresponding
award card. There are only a few known.
L . _ _ __ _ ____:::, . . . .
6
Another interesting machine 1s
called the SPINNING TOP
(photo 4). This machine spins a
red, white, and blue top under a
glass dome after a nickel is
played. When the top stopped,