Automatic Age

82
AUTOMATIC AGE
April, 1941
TOO BUSY TO PAY
FINE? READ THIS
NOTED LOUNGE
and bar, “Charlie s”
of Buffalo, proves popularity of Wurlitzer
Colonial Model
Ability to harmonize with
any type of distinctive sur­
roundings is one of the big fea­
tures of the Wurlitzer Colonial
Model. Above you see it in
“Charlie’s,” popular Delaware
Avenue spot in Buffalo.
Charles Klausner, propriet­
or, explains, “We chose a W ur­
litzer Colonial because it was
GO OD IDEA FOR
COIN MACHINE
An operator, who writes in,
wants to know why someone
doesn’t manufacture a coin op­
erated monkey speedway such
as used in amusement parks and
carnivals. He believes that a
machine of this type would at­
tract players by the score.
The monkey speedway is us­
ually a circular affair comprised
of from three to four tracks
along the edges of which an
electric current flows. A small
racing car about two feet long
is placed on each track. The
cars are equipped with an elec­
tric motor for power and a
grimacing monkey for a driver.
Patrons around the outside of
the speedway make bets on the
various cars, and if they win
they receive a box of candy or a
gaily colored plaster doll.
In adapting this idea to the
different from the typical auto­
matic phonograph. Our choice
proved a wise one. It made a
big hit with our patrons and
the ladies, in particular, are
always admiring it.”
This installation also in­
cludes three Wurlitzer Stroll­
ers for the convenience of
Charlie’s music loving trade.
Motorists who have a mania
for collecting those distasteful
overtime parking tickets from
roving policemen can forget
about the worries of paying off
fines if the invention of a lead­
ing parking meter manufactur­
er has anything to do with the
matter.
Officials of the city of Mobile,
Alabama, are thinking over a
plan to install robot fine collec­
tors in various parts of the city.
The device is a special type of
machine designed to take money.
Here’s how it works:
A policeman hangs a certain
kind of ticket on your over­
parked car. The ticket may pre­
scribe a 50 cent penalty. You’re
very much annoyed because you
haven’t got time to go to the
police station to pay the fine, or
else you dare not take time off
from work.
By reading the ticket, how­
ever, that if you go to So-an-
So’s grocery store or Mr. Jones'
gas station you can get square
with the law by depositing the
ticket, along with the stipulated
sum of money, in a certain ma­
chine.
That makes it easier. You go
to So-and-So’s, and there’s the
machine. You get your money
changed into half dollars, place
the ticket into the slot as re­
quired, and then deposit your
coins in the coin chute. When
the correct number of coins have
entered the machine, your tick­
et emerges, punched or stamp­
ed to prove that you are again
friends with the city.
The machine is known simply
as a fine collector, and it is said
that about 100 of them would
be enough to service Mobile.
coin machine business, of course,
the size would be an important
factor. No such large tracks
could possibly be used unless a
permanent stand were set up. In
such a case electric coin chutes
might accept bets and pay off
odds automatically as the race
concluded.
It should be possible to create
the monkey speedway in minia­
ture with small cars and small
motors to drive them. The coin
chute arrangement would not be
difficult to work out, and the
novelty of such a game would
doubtless be quite strong.
Monkeys used in the big mon­
key speedways always give the
impression that they would be
far happier back in Africa, in­
stead of ending up their days on
a merry-go-round. They would
Salesman at back door: “I f y°^
doubtless be glad to relinquish please, lady, I lost my leg in the
^
t h e i r j o b s to mechanical
Lady: “I can’t help it. It isn t
brothers.
here.”
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