Coin Slot Magazine - #036 - 1978 - January [International Arcade Museum]
ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM THE
SOON TO BE RELEASED BOOK
"An Illustrated Price Guide to the 100
Most Popular Collectible Slot Machines"
by
Richard M. Bueschel and The Coin Slot.
You have to be pretty sharp of eye and keen of wit to tell the dif
ference between the Mills, Caille, and Watling Bell machines of
the late teens and early twenties.
They all have their distinctive
qualities, but once the oak cabinet came into fashion, the machines
began to look a lot alike.
The Great War, that early and optimistic
name for World War I, had a lot to do with it. Mills started the oak
cabinet in 1915, Caille Bros, in 1916, and Watling by the end of the
year, because America was at war, with the 1918 Mills Operator
Bell looking a lot like the 1916, only it had a redesigned mechanism.
To help identification out, each year for a decade most of the Mills
machines had the model year in the front casting.
By then, Watling
machines looked like Mills machines, and a bunch of new post-WWI
producers made similar Bells.
Only the post-war Caille Bros. Machines looked different, and how!
Caille had a hard time getting back into production after the war.
Losing momentum and trying to break away from the pack and
come to grips with the staggering head-start competition from Mills,
Caille Bros, tried a trick.
history of side handles.
did
By that time, the Bells had a ten year
So Caille put the pull in the middle. They
it by attaching an upside-down "U"-shaped piece of steel to
.com
m
:
u
m
e
mus at the top of a tall pull slot.
d of fro the de machine
coming out of the front
-
e
d
rca was put together the same way. The
No other Bell before
or .a
since
nloa w
w
o
D
w
machine had a modest
://w success when it came out, but not nearly the
success it now
http has over half-a-century later. Because it is so different
the handle shaft on the right side and added a bearing on the left.
A handle was welded to the center of the bridge with the shaft
from other Bell machines it is regarded as an eminent collectible.
© The International Arcade Museum
http://www.arcade-museum.com/