The Freeport Vendors
I,
The only vending patent granted to Albert Baum-
garten was submitted in 1901 and granted July 22,
,;,, 1
1902. Despite this lack
of invention in the area
of vending, the Freeport
Novelty Co. is credited
with producing several
ornate vendors: The
Freeport Peanut Vendor,
,._ Freeport Dragons, Free-
port Twins, Nut & Candy
Vender, Soda Mint Gum,
Freeport Gum Vendor,
and Goo Goo Gum ven-
dors. It is noteworthy
that the vending patent
granted to Albert bears a
great deal of similarity to
the design and patent of
the Berger vendor made
contemporaneously by the identically short lived
Berger Manufacturing Co. of Chicago Ridge, Illinois.
(See " Who want a Berger? The history of the Paul E. Berger Manufac-
turing Company." C.0.C.A. Times 7( I): 12- 16, 2006.)
Many of the existing machines show
that Freeport manufactured machines
for others, including Mills to distribute.
Goo-Goo and Standard Manufacturing also
distributed versions of the Freeport ma-
chines. All the machines that have sur-
vived have ornate front castings attached
to wooden (generally oak) cabinets that
house the mechanism and merchandise.
The smaller machines have small cabinet
locks at the top with locking pins that en-
gage the cabinet at the base. The ma-
chines open outward and downward for
refilling and recovery of the coins, which
generally fall loosely to the bottom of the
case or a tin money box. (Interestingly,
the original patent describes and shows a
hinged front casting that would swing to
the side for access. This design also in-
cluded a top lid that could be slid forward
and lifted up and off when the front
was opened. This was to allow easy
refilling of the machine's large supply
hopper.) The ornate design of these vendors reflect
both the time that they were made and the decora-
tive heritage that was part of the Arcade line of cof-
fee mills.
To discourage the use of slugs, many of the Free-
port vendors have witness windows that allow the
operator, and others, to
see the last coin used.
The original designs sub-
mitted by Albert indicated
that this display window
could be made to show
from 1-3 coins depending
on only the width of the
window and the place-
ment of a small lip that
kept the coins from exit-
ing the display space. No
special mechanism was
required for this display to
work, since each coin de-
posited would displace the
previous one as it exited
the vending mechanism.
It is interesting
that only
the large
Freeport vendors (Dragons, Twins
and peanut vendors) use the side
mounted handle to activate the
mechanism, as shown in the patent
application. All the others use a cen-
ter mounted push rod. Given Albert 's
familiarity with the patent process, it is
interesting that these versions where
never patented, though the Goo-Goo
shown indicates "Pat. Appd for" on the
inside of the case. Could it be that
they were produced around the time of
Albert's death and that the company
either lacked the wi ll to pursue it or
that any applications that were flied
were withdrawn? We will probably
never know. We can only marvel that
from plows, windmills and coffee
grinders came such amazing exam-
ples of vending art.