Coin Slot Magazine - #043 - 1978 - August [International Arcade Museum]
big dollar open bids on this thing for some time, so if you find one
don't sweat the cost:
you'll make out just fine.
The Washington, DC, firm of Coyle & Rogers started making coin
machines in 1888, probably producing their machines for local saloon
placement.
They called their early devices "electrical toys" to get
around the patent objections to a gambling device, and because their
early machines had electrical features.
The first of their dice throw
ers wasn't particularly complicated, but then they went all out to
create a gadget that would amaze us to this day. The idea of autom
atons was very popular, with wind up and coin operated mechanical
figures or robots providing the amusement of a working figure for
the dropping of a coin. Coyle & Rogers went a lot farther. They not
only made their machine an automaton; they made it a payout based
on the dice throw.
The mechanical hand alone is a masterpiece.
In
the manner of the Roovers machines that followed a few years later,
the hand had a number of complex mechanical components hidden
under a flexible glove.
When the coin was dropped in the coin chute
at the top its weight hitting a trip wire made the hand oscillate and
shake the dice in a small cup, the latter made of ivory, hard rubber or
the new celluloid.
The hand is only the beginning of the machine's wonders.
Once
the shake has been made the player has a chance to win a token or
printed card payout.
in.
And that's where the unbelievable part comes
If double sixes are thrown, the automatic payout spits out its
prize at the front of the machine.
The results are electric:
that's how it was done, with electricity!
and
Strips of metal buried in
the bottom of the dice cup are connected to dry cell batteries through
the hand, but the circuit isn't complete,
it takes the dice to com
plete the bridge and only one combination will do it. The machine
was made with either one or two dice, with contacts inside of the
dice on the side opposite the sixes.
So when the double-sixes are
thrown in the model with two dice, the contacts on the bottom of
the dice complete the circuit and the payout carousel is advanced
one notch to drop out a token or card.
com
.
m
:
What are the chances of om
seu machine? They're probably
r finding
u this
f things
m
d
-
pretty slim, but stranger
have
happened. Coyle & Rogers en
e
e
ad
oa in d a . tall
l
c
r
cased their device
cylindrical cabinet with all of the dice and
n
a
w
Dow taking
hand action
/ww place under a glass dome. In other words, the
/
:
p
t
machine was
ht fairly attractive, and people are often reluctant to throw
something away that looks so good.
But we're asking four genera
tions of owners to keep the machine for a collector, and that's a hefty
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