Automatic Age

10
T
he
A
u t o m a t ic
use—but a new machine called the
“ Little Broker,” a British product, is
being tried out to replace it. The
Englishman is a born sportsman and
loves his gambling. And that is the
type of machine he will patronize
most. Gambling machines are not in
evidence in Germany, but are to be
found in many cafes in Paris, most
of them a small anemic-looking Eu­
ropean product.
In France, in addition to low
wages, there is the obstacle of the
low and unstable rate of exchange.
One day a franc might be worth 4
cents—the next day 3—and the day
after, 5. That makes it necessary to
sell slugs to work the machines with
— some at 50 centimes, some at 75
centimes and some even at a franc.
In Paris, particularly, we visited
two penny arcades there and found
no new machines at all. We did see
rows of our old style Mutoscopes,
beautifully enameled in white, work­
ing with a slug worth 75 centimes.
Also old Mills drop picture machines,
with phonograph attachment. But
the drop pictures were strictly “ Par-
isienne” and they didn’t have a single
“ For Men Only” sign up. Another
establishment featured only coin op­
erated phonographs and they all
seemed to work and played the latest
music. As one left this place, he
was offered for sale the sheet music
or the phonograph record for the
song he had just heard, and they sold
quite a number of them while we
watched.
We found Germany buckled down
to the very serious job of coming
back to her former self, with the
amusement machine industry, how­
ever, entirely neglected. In Berlin as
well as in London, William Wrigley,
Jr., is trying to induce the Euro­
peans into the distinctly American
© International Arcade Museum
A
ge
habit of chewing gum. The ^ ^
sold on little pushcarts which
play advantageously all the ^
brands of chewing gum. Mr-
j
ley has one factory in London ^
another factory in Frankfurt, A- ^
Germany. W e did see,
practically every German ral . -
station a machine selling
^
books at 40 pfenings each (10
from which the customer c0 ^
choose any one of the 12 ^tleS
merely turning a little handle a*
right and pointing to the partic
title he wanted. Also each railr° ^
station charges a few cents f°r
ticket allowing the purchaser to
friends on the platforms of inco#1^
trains. These tickets are vended
clusively through govemment-o1^
coin-operated machines.
The automatic amusement
as we saw, as a rule are too large ^
intricate for quantity production
operating on a large scale. There ^
no demand for a large number ^
machines of any one type, beca ^
the territories to be covered
small and the arcades and ope1*®
of amusement machines are x
Each country has a very high Pr° ,
tive tariff, many times the duty
as high as the cost of the mach11^
itself, making it prohibitive to
machines from one country into ’
other, even though they may he
a few hours apart. This makes ^
necessary for each operator when
wants something, to manufacture
himself by hand—labor being c^6^e
—and he does not care about
weight or the size, as it is made ^
a view to remaining in his own P
ticular place.
In England most of the alTlUS,fe
ments are located on the piers, in ^
suburbs of the big cities where Pe°
pie spend the day and very little eJ
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