Coin Slot Magazine - #033 - 1977 - October [International Arcade Museum]
THE MILLS FUTURITY
George Douglas
Box 1344, Portsmouth, N.H.
In the mid 1930's, as a result of the continuing search for some
thing new, the Mills Novelty Co. put into production their newest
and most innovative slot machine, The Futurity. The feature (or
gimmick) of the Futurity was; if you went 10 plays in a row with
out a winner you received 10 coins "Free"!! Basically, the Futur
ity utilized the standard, quiet, trouble free mechanism of the day
in a standard "Modern Design" case. The outstanding feature
was a large half-circle dial and pointer numbered 0 to 10, just
above the escalator. The pointer indicated of course, each succes
sive play without a winner.
The Futurity is a "Fun" machine to play and is always among the
most popular in any collection. In fact, the player will invariably
find all his (or her) attention focused on that tantalizing dial and
the payoff line is virtually ignored.
At any rate, it's the Futurity mechanisms that are of most interest
to a collector. The mechanism to advance and zero the pointer is
rather straightforward, though delicate. A toothed cam behind
the pointer is advanced by a lever with each play. Should any
payoff finger move forward far enough to payoff, it also trips
a plate which releases the pointer cam which is in turn spring
driven back to zero. The mechanism to control the reels, and
more specifically, the theory behind that mechanism is most inter
esting and indeed ingenious. After all, to let your winning com
binations appear at random (as on a normal machine) isn't nearly
as desireable as controlling the winners and allowing the pointer
to inch tantalizingly close to 10 each time, before a payoff zeroes
it
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It's all done like this ... the reels are standard 10 stop reels, but
the reel discs (or plates) are 20 stop discs. There is a 10 event
cam assembly mounted on the side frame just below the first
arate 10 stop sequences (even and odd) on each 20 symbol reel.
The even numbered symbols are set up for an extremely low
probability of a winner occuring; only 2.6% or about one winner
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