Automatic Age

12
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A
u t o m a t ic
clerk’s salary to pay, and only an
occasional customer would step in.
The machines, however, are always
ready for operation, and they will
render this service whenever a cus­
tomer approaches them and inserts a
coin.
And now we come to the matter
of slugs. W e have not been bothered
very much by the use of slugs.
However, there are some one or two
individuals who have been using a
slug on us for the past three years.
W e have given a great deal of time
to trying to pick them off. In our
efforts we have arrested three, what
I might term innocent victims, who
just happened along and happened to
have some kind of a slug or token
and would drop it into the machine.
One of them got sixty days, the other
got ninety days, and in the case of
the last one, because I believed his
story was true, I told the commis­
sioner that I thought he ought to be
let go. So after he had been locked
up for three days, he was turned
free. But I venture to say that if we
ever are successful in picking off the
individual who has been using thece
slugs on us, he will have at least a
four year term star ng him in the
face.
W e have some very good slug-re­
jecting mechanisms and at present
have one machine which will throw
out a Canadian quarter and all brass
slugs, although it will take steel
slugs. Whether or not it is porsible
to develop this mechanism to the
point where it will throw out all
slugs, I do not know; but I was very
much interested when the secretary
of your association advised me that
there is now a bill before Congress
to make it a violation for any con­
cern to make slugs in imitation of
coins. It seems to me that that is
a reasonable law.
In our drive to catch the individual
© International Arcade Museum
A
ge
who is using slugs, we have had
funny experiences. Th e police de­
partment once arrested a pair who
had in their possession a number of
slugs. They called for us; but when
I went over to the police head­
quarters, I found that their slugs had
not been used in the stamp vending
machines in the Post Office. When
they were questioned, these persons
informed us that they could purchase
these slug in Chicago. There is a
store there— they gave us the ad­
dress— where slugs may be purchased
at a small cost, and they are adver­
tised right in the windows of the
shop.
Now, it does not seem to me that
the law should permit things of that
character. I appreciate the fact that
the telephone company, for instance,
issues slugs for their investigators
to use in testing their telephone
machines.
That may be all right
from their viewpoint, but neverthe­
less, it seems to me that if there Is a
bill before Congress which make3 it
a violation for any institution or or­
ganization to manufacture slugs, it
ought to be passed. I believe that if
the Association takes up the measure
seriously, it should be successful in
having the bill passed; and I am
thoroughly in sympathy with it and I
will give any assistance I can to get
such a bill passed.
I believe that the use of slugs is
the one big thing that operators have
to contend with. Probably machines
located in the open receive more slugs
than ours. Sluggers hesitate to come
into our building and use slugs, but
the person who has evaded us for
three years is very clever, because we
have tried almost every scheme that
we could think of. I have given seven
Sunday afternoons of my own time,
and we secreted ourselves in a comer
and by the use of looking glasses,
which gave a view of the stamp
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