C.O.C.A. Times

call it) has a look all its own. It differs greatly from
the bright nickel that 99% of the plating shops use
today. There is only one place to go to get the best
job done today in Watts Nickel and that is to Roger
Kislingbury of Pasadena CA. Roger not only does
all my plating but he also was instrumental in get-
ting me the missing musical cabinet front grill that
I needed as well as the linkage for the music box.
That brings up the other missing piece of the puzzle,
the music box itself. With another phone call to the
other coast, Larry Debaugh just happened to have
the correct music box for that machine and was
willing to sell it at a fair price. Upon receiving it I
immediately shipped it out to Roger to have him
give it a going over to be sure that everything mated
up to the linkage he was furnishing . While all this
was going on, as I said before, everything else came
completely apart and I totally restored the mecha-
nism, along with the broken actuator, and the cabi-
net to their former glory. I was very careful to not
over restore it as so many others have done in the
past, ruining the "look" of a fine old antique. After
about eight months, the pieces of the puzzle all
came back together. The machine with the music
box plays like a dream and ultimately was worth the
wait. Today, it is the first thing you see when enter-
ing the front door of our home. It is a pleasure to
display and a joy to demonstrate to everyone that
drops by.
May of that year when the roads were finally clear
that I could manage to get away and drive back up
there to retrieve my prize. My wife and I made a
mini vacation of it and drove our trusty Dodge Ram
up the winding mountain roads back to Silverton.
The "Chicago" had been moved from the Bent
Elbow to a small warehouse in town as the Saloon
had been sold and the new owners had taken pos-
session. It looked pretty sad sitting there among
piles of junk and other dilapidated antiques. The
cash rapidly changed hands and we headed back
home with our shabby old machine, much in need
of restoration. Upon arrival, we unloaded it into the
shop and I began to take stock of just what I had and
what it would take to get her back to factory origi-
nal condition. Years ago, someone had performed
their idea of artistry and painted all the metal and
wood trim with gold gilt paint. Obviously, every last
piece of this machine would have to be disassem-
bled, striped and refinished. The missing music box
and linkage would have to be located along with the
missing "music box front grill casting". Everything
else was there and in need of a thorough and careful
cleaning. The exterior castings would need replat-
ing but not by just any old plating shop. Great
machines of that era (which the serial number
revealed to have been made in 1901) deserve the
exact same type of plating that was used at the turn
of the Century. Watts Nickel (or grey nickel as some
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