The
C o in
T h e
M a c h in e
u r n
N a t io n a t B u s in e s s P a p e r o f th e
Vol. 2, No. 4
C o in
M
♦
♦
b u h is t r y
April, 1952
Chicago, 111.
♦
a c h in e
A L
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In Those Days
Scales Fascinated
Everyone at Five
Cents a Weigh.
By RicharcTHancock
'
NE of the earliest coin ma
chines made was the coin
operated scale. Operators
tell us they operated scales as long
as forty years ago; while patent rec
ords show applications made and
patents granted several years prior
to that.
Some of these early scales were
made for nickels and were big
money makers. We have it on good
authority that some locations earned
$100 a day with a fair degree of
consistency.
On one occasion one of these .early
scales, no less a novelty then as some
modem machines, was placed on the
Hoboken Ferry where people lined
up to step on the machine to test
its weight guessing accuracy at five
cents each.
New then, but an indispensable
function of today’s routine, the
scale excited the curiosity of the
public who were beginning to find
new ways of spending money.
The success of the first scales
prompted a small army of inventors
to attempt to include various nov
elty features in new types with
varying success.
The mirror dial scale and the
open dial scale, by many said to be
O
Here is a story showing
9 how old time scales were
developed f r o tn one
stage to another .
the most popular and consistent
earners were the outgrowth of a
myriad number of novelty ma
chines.
A pioneer scale manufacturer has
long contended that the history of
the vending machine, scale or what
not, ranges from the practical to
the multi-feature or grotesque, back
to the practical one purpose unit.
To be sure a review of manufactur
ers’ catalogs and circular matter
going back several years tends to
establish this fact. For instance,
the" first scales served for weight
only and according to the mode of
the time were plain affairs. As
though attempting to ride on the
success of these models newcomers
added ornamentation to other fanci
ful features carrying their ideas to
gaudy extremes that in comparison
with today’s modernistic motifs
seem ludicrous.
Enhanced Scans © The International Arcade Museum
One of the most successful manu
facturers says the success or per
manency of any machine lies in its
simplicity. People act or react to
certain impulses. When the appeals
that are made impose on their capac
ity to react with celerity the whole
idea collapses; another machine is
consigned to the coin machine bone
yard while a new, one purpose unit
succeeds to the location.
O N E of th e
early developments was a scale with
side mounts, a grip tester and a
height measuring device — three
purposes for the one coin. Despite
the service rendered, it was years
before people ceased to act from
the sense of curiosity. This appeal
naturally had the elements of em
barrassment to the prospective cus
tomer. Willing, even eager, to exer
cise his gullibility for one definite
return, the customer caught in the
intricacies of working several de
vices with which he was unfamiliar
simply refrained from making him
self ridiculous before friends or
others.
It is more consistent, veteran op
erators insist, to have three ma-
(Continued on page 14)
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